When 'No Answer' is the Answer

 

Wednesday, April 7, 2021

Saturday evening, when the Sabbath ended, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome went out and purchased burial spices so they could anoint Jesus’ body.  Very early on Sunday morning, just at sunrise, they went to the tomb.  On the way they were asking each other, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?”  But as they arrived, they looked up and saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled aside.  When they entered the tomb, they saw a young man clothed in a white robe sitting on the right side.  The women were shocked,  but the angel said, “Don’t be alarmed.  You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified.  He isn’t here!  He is risen from the dead!  Look, this is where they laid his body.  Now go and tell his disciples, including Peter, that Jesus is going ahead of you to Galilee.  You will see him there, just as he told you before he died.”  The women fled from the tomb, trembling and bewildered, and they said nothing to anyone because they were too frightened.  Mark 16:1-8

If you’ve ever had a serious conversation with a four-year-old you have heard the question, in that unmistakeable/annoying tone, WHY?  Four-year-olds (and probably most other ages) are hardly satisfied with an answer that does not scratch their particular “itch”.  They know when they’re being delayed or deflected, and they want an answer that satisfies.

In the dawning rays of Sunday’s morning the women approached the tomb.  They expected a lot of hard work with a heavy stone, a decaying body, and to have their appetite disappear for several days.  They didn’t get what they expected.

So it is with the way God does things; very rarely do we encounter what we expected.  And we can be thankful that God’s ways are different than ours; we get it wrong, and mess things up so much of the time.

Perhaps the women were like me.  I like things settled.  I want a final, definitive answer to my questions.  Give me a yes or a no, just don’t give me that we’ll see.  A body is definitive.  No matter how much it grieves you to do so, you can dress it, embalm it, put it in the ground, say good bye, and roll the stone back in place.  We call it closure, putting a final cap on our need to know what happens next.  It’s a holy duty, taking care of the remains of that which housed the image of God.  The women wanted that closure; it helps the memories heal, and gives us a chance to move-on with our lives.

God was not having any of that on Easter morning.  The women found the tombstone already laid aside.  They found the tomb vacant, except for a young man in a white robe who told them, He isn’t here!  He is risen from the dead!  Look, this is where they laid his body.  Now go and tell….  For those women (and the rest of humanity), those few sentences turned every thought upside down, and changed everything.  They left the tomb trembling and confused.  Death had been so predictable, breathing ceases, pulse stops, flesh grows cold, you put it in the ground.  Alive was much more complicated.  This was not an answer they imagined when they asked each other how they were going to get the tombstone out of the way. 

In typical human fashion they wondered about the task at hand, moving a thousand pounds of rock.  What they encountered was a cornerstone reality about being obedient to God:  whatever you expected, God will provide what you need…and it will sometimes be upsetting, even frightening…and it will be better and (eventually) make more sense than anything else.

For You Today

Does the thought of resurrection startle you? 

Just wait; you’ve not seen anything yet!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title Image:  Pixabay.com      Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©