The Power of Resurrection

by General Presbyter Melana Scruggs

The first ending of the gospel of Mark is not one we usually read on Easter Sunday morning. A young man in a white robe meets the women at the tomb and tells them to go tell Peter and the disciples that Jesus is raised and is going ahead of them to Galilee. The very next verse says: “So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.” (Mark 16:8, NRSVUE) Those are real feelings that we can understand. They had seen something that was beyond their comprehension in the midst of the grief that overwhelmed them, so they said nothing.

Jesus being raised from the dead is amazing and beyond our comprehension. One year as I was explaining the resurrection to the children during worship, a four-year-old stopped me and said, “You mean Jesus isn’t dead forever?” That is precisely what we celebrate every Sunday morning, but especially on Easter. Jesus isn’t dead forever and that means that God’s love conquers all – all fear, all doubt, all hate, all prejudice, all injustice.

God did not allow humanity to have the last word by killing Jesus, but raised him from the dead to show the immensity of God’s love and grace for us. That is our message and it changes everything – our lives, our despair, our hopes, our dreams, are all known by the One who came, lived, and died like us. The difference is that God raised him from the dead so that we might then experience new life – life beyond fear and doubt – life that can overcome the darkness of the world. God sent Jesus to live and die so that we might understand that God knows what we experience. God raised Jesus from the dead so that we might catch a glimpse of how much God loves us and wants to know that love.

We need to share that message with others because that kind of love changes everything. What makes Christianity different from all other religions is grace and incarnation – God comes to us before we ever know we need God’s love. We do not earn our way to relationship with God, we are freely invited to that relationship. That message of grace, not works, brings hope and peace.

This is a message that must be shared and remembered because our natural human tendency is to believe that we have to earn our way into God’s grace. And somewhere else inside us we know that we can never be good enough. Fear reminds me of the weeds that inundate my yard every spring. Every year I try to kill the weeds, but they survive, and the grass does not. I think if I would focus on growing more grass, the grass might overcome the weeds.

I think that is what we are called to do as Christians – focus on God’s love and grace and hope. If we nourish those gifts of God, perhaps they will overcome the fear and doubt that pervades our society. This is the amazing good news that we celebrate at Easter – God loves us into the people God intends us to be. We are called to go and share this message in a world that so badly needs to hear it.