Conditions of Birth ...

There is no greater joy in the mob, than to condemn sin in others, particularly a public sin.  The mob is not interested in redemption; nor is it interested in forgiveness.  The mob claims interest only in justice.  But more often, the mob is only really interested in vengeance and humiliation.  If this were an old west movie, and the town’s people were chasing some criminal, it might be more tolerable.  But when the mob is a religious one, the first goal is to make everyone aware of the sin of its target.  The second goal is to see that the sinner is punished appropriately for what they have done.  The mob holds itself guiltless no matter the truth.  The mob holds itself as arbiter of the will of God.  The mob believes its actions are only just and deserved, and perhaps it even has a point.  But this is not the story of our God, or the story of His plan, for His plan redeems that which does not deserve redemption.  Our God forgives that which should not be forgiven.  Our God transforms the life of the guilty sinner into one of passionate love for others that makes obedience not only possible, but the lowest rung upon which to measure success.

Our modern Christians too often equate with the mob.  Our American idealism understands frontier justice, even if we personally do not participate in it.  We look on public sinners like Anthony Weiner and decide that his repeated behaviors are proof that he is not really sorry, and will do it again, the minute he has a chance.  Getting caught appears to be the only thing he is sorry for, as many a sinner will be in “the day of punishment at the end of all things”.  If mob justice were to arise, even our modern Christian churches would somehow sympathize.  We do not appreciate those with sexual sins.  We appreciate even less the ones who get caught and parade their weaknesses in public.  And when the sinner impacts the life of a child, our tolerance completely vanishes, and only our sense of justice emerges.  And so even where there is no pitchforks and lanterns on the streets, there is still an equal sentiment in the hearts of those watching the news in their living rooms, who call themselves followers of Jesus.

So what is the just punishment for sexting with anyone, let alone a minor, from a religious perspective?  The quick answer is a pending trip to the fires of hell, but that seems rather far off, and not immediate enough to satiate the crowd here.  In Biblical times there was no concept of sexting.  Photography itself would take many centuries to appear.  And electronic transmission of images in an instant across thousands of miles was just conceptually unheard of in the days of Jesus.  But exposing oneself to others in person was something they have had since before the flood.  And women who did not turn away from such exposure but rather turned towards it with thoughts of their own, is also something that has existed since before the flood.  So while the methods may differ, the sexual sins are based largely on the same inner thoughts and outer actions. 

For a member of the right religion (the Jewish faith) to find herself pregnant prior to marriage was a pretty terrific and dangerous sin for her.  Since the Jewish faith was very much a male dominated society, the penalties for the men seemed to have largely dissipated, but the penalities for the women in such conditions were as sharp as they ever were.  The woman would be stoned.  Now for your average woman who was not officially known as a prostitute, options were limited.  A fiancée such as Mary was, engaged to a good man like Joseph, had few if any.  From the mob’s point of view, if Mary was caught cheating on Joseph, stoning would be in her future.  If however, Mary and Joseph just jumped the gun a little on the wedding date, and got pregnant a bit earlier than was planned, this could be forgiven as long as neither party was cheating in any of this.

But Matthew had a problem.  Matthew was writing his gospel from a very traditional Hebrew perspective.  His audience would care very much about the conditions of the birth of Jesus.  They may have accepted His ancestry as being from the lineage of David and Abraham.  But there were a lot of questions swirling around the birth of Jesus Himself.  Was Mary a slut or not?  Joseph was obviously a good devout man, but the Pharisees made a ton of innuendo about Mary being a full-on-slut, caught with her pants down so to speak, and Jesus being born a bastard at best.  How could a bastard ever be the Messiah?  The penalties were clear, and the mob was ready to pounce.  This was the mindset of the audience that Matthew was determined to share the Gospel with.  Matthew must unite Old and New Testaments.  If He could not, the one or the other was a lie.  Could God lie?

Matthew lays out the conditions of birth picking up in chapter one and verse 18 saying … “Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.”  Matthew dives right in from his audience’s perspective, the problem was clear.  Mary was engaged to Joseph.  But before the two of them could come together as husband and wife (in effect before Joseph “knew” Mary in ancient terms).  Mary was found to be with child of the Holy Ghost.  Mary was pregnant.  Mary was showing.  It’s not like Mary could go around her home town advertising that the Holy Spirit had come to her explaining all this in advance.  Who would believe her?  Who would believe any girl who claimed to not only have heard the voice of the Holy Spirit, but was getting pregnant from the Holy Spirit?  That was crazy town talk.  So she kept silent.  The gospel was shared with Mary, but fear kept it locked up inside, until the evidence of the gospel could not be overlooked.

Matthew continues in verse 19 saying … “Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily.”  The problem continues.  While Mary knew the gospel of the Messiah was now developing in her womb, not even her fiancée knew it.  Joseph could see the evidence of pregnancy.  Joseph could see the evidence of her unfaithfulness.  Mary must have cheated on him as that was the only way this condition could have emerged.  Some men would have led the mob with pitchforks and stones.  Some men would have slinked away and let the mob do its own justice unable to watch the outcome.  But Joseph was of a mind to forgive Mary, preserve her life, but put her away, and never trust her again.  Joseph would preserve the life of mother and child that was not his, but the life he had planned was over.  This was to be private pain for Joseph, private distrust, private betrayal.  He must take responsibility for this sin he did not commit with the outside mob, but the life that was destroyed on the inside was his.

Matthew continues in verse 20 stating … “But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.”  The Gospel was now declared by an Angel of God in a dream to Joseph.  There was no arguing.  There was no doubts.  Mary had not deceived or betrayed him, Mary was faithful to Joseph.  This baby was conceived by the Holy Spirit.  But wait a minute.  If no man was the father, that left only one choice for who was the father.  It had to be the Father God.  If the Father God was the father, then this son would be a Son of His.  Joseph would be raising God as his own son.  The life Joseph had thought to preserve was now the only life that could preserve his own.  The forgiveness Joseph was of a mind to grant Mary and her baby, could only be granted by the baby to Joseph.  The responsibility was enormous.  He was not equipped to raise God.  What do you even call God?

Matthew continues in verse 21 saying … “And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.”  There it is.  There is the Gospel in a single sentence.  Call Him Jesus.  The Mission of this Messiah, of the only and true Messiah, will not be the ascendency of His own power.  It will not be a mission of condemnation for those who are plainly guilty.  Instead, this Jesus, will save His people from their sins.  It remains so today.  We are not called only to forgiveness.  We are not called only to grace.  We are called to be transformed by a love that creates passion in us for others and none for ourselves.  We are called to be saved from our sins, freed from them, freed from our slavery to them.  We are not saved from the devil.  We are saved from ourselves.  We are saved from the creatures we have become.  Salvation is salvation from us.  This is the mission of the Messiah, of our Messiah, and of theirs.  There is no mob in this message.  There is no justice in it, only mercy, for mercy has outdone justice due to love.  And none are immune from it.  Even those caught in repeated sin, horrific sin, public sin.  All can be saved from who they are.  All they need is Jesus.

These were the conditions of birth.  This is how Jesus came to be.  These are the facts of it.  But how does this tie back to what was foretold?  Matthew continues in verse 22 saying … “Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, [verse 23] Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.”  These are not just the words of Matthew spoken after they have occurred.  The God of our scriptures was the same God from before the arrival of Jesus.  Matthew quotes the very prophet Isaiah to his audience.  Isaiah was given the foresight to prophecy these words centuries before they would be fulfilled.  But they were fulfilled in Jesus.  This Gospel of the Hebrews will be a series of prophecies of Old fulfilled in the New, fulfilled in embodiment of Jesus Christ.

The audience of Matthew might be willing to argue with Matthew.  They may not like his words, or his former profession.  But Isaiah was revered.  Isaiah was sacrosanct.  No one dare argue with Isaiah, and Isaiah said it would occur just like it has occurred.  The Pharisees were wrong.  The leaders of the right religion were wrong.  Isaiah had said it, and it occurred.  Mary was not a slut, she was honored and her virginity intact at conception.  God is with us.  God, the very God of the entire Old Testament was with us.  Here with us.  How could it get any better than this?  And the religious leaders of the right religion pissed it away.  They did not only squander the opportunity.  They attempted and succeeded (for a moment) at cutting it short by killing the very author of their own religion.  This is what control does to a Jesus who asks us to abandon it to Himself.

But this condition was not just to be documented for conception, Isaiah words were to last for the entire pregnancy and carry even more weight.  Matthew continues in verse 24 saying … “Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife: [verse 25] And knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name JESUS.”  Joseph did as the Angel instructed.  He not only forgave Mary who needed no forgiveness, he embraced her as his wife as a full partner in the life he had envisioned.  But he also preserved her virginity until AFTER the birth of Jesus.  Only then did He come to “know” Mary as her husband.  Mary was not a slut.  Nor was she some sort of aberrant depiction of the goddess Diana, or some moon goddess, or some picture of perpetual virginity.  She was his wife.  After a virgin birth, she was his partner, and the object of his sexual expression.  And they had other children who were siblings of Jesus.  They were a family.  A human family tasked with raising God among them.

There would be no mob mentality to deal with “sins” that were not even sins.  The judgment of humanity is not judgment at all, it is only condemnation of what they cannot understand.  The sins we commit are never right, or excused; only forgiven.  Our chains to them, our desires to do them, are what Jesus came to save us from.  The entire Gospel summed up in one sentence.  He came to “save” His people from their sins.  Not to excuse them in perpetuity.  He came to change the lives of those who are in bondage to sins.  He came to make us different.  He came to remove from us the things that must be removed if perfection is ever to be our result.  Obedience is not a precondition of our salvation.  Obedience is a evidentiary result of our salvation.  It cannot occur until transformation of who we are occurs.  This is what Jesus came to do.  No mobs need ever form.  Redemption and reclamation is His only goal.

Matthew had made his first foray into tying the Old with the New.  But this was far from finished …

 

To Know the Will of God ...

What are we supposed to do?  Very often we reach decision points in our lives where the path forward seems very uncertain.  Do I go left or right?  Do I vote my heart or my head?  Do we proceed with this mission work even though we do not have the funds?  The answers to our quandaries are also not readily available in scripture.  We try to apply Biblical principles to our decisions, when so often in our modern world we lack a one-for-one scriptural answer.  We pray about our questions and ask to know what the will of God is for what we face.  Prayer is the most awesome tool in our arsenal.  But for most of us, prayer is a one-way street.  That is, we, do all the talking, God seems silent to us.  The prayers give us a sense of hope that our question will be answered somehow.  But this leaves us searching for an answer in the clues of the divine, not hearing an audible response from God directly on how to proceed.

So what to do?  Our God is the same God, from eternities ago, till infinities ahead.  He is a constant.  He is unchanging.  For how could love ever change and still call itself love?  The expression of His love may seem to grow in our eyes.  Our perspective on His love grows.  But His love was always there, it is us that is growing, not Him.  But for humanity, as times change, so do priorities, and methods.  Jesus did not speak to us directly, or prophetically, about our taste in our music.  He gave no dissertations about the use of an internet ministry, or an addiction to it.  He did not directly say whether we should engage full steam ahead in a TV ministry whether by broadcast, or satellite, or podcast.  Jesus never directly spoke about the “issues” the modern church faces in ministry to the world.  Jesus gave no direction about when a fetus becomes a baby.  There are scattered scriptures that touch on this, but no direct sermon from Jesus Himself while He was here.  Nor did Jesus speak directly about homosexuality whether in or out of the church.  These issues that so perplex the mind of the modern Christian seemed to occupy no time at all in His.

So when we face dilemmas in ministry we look to the remainder of the Bible to find direction on what to do.  We apply Biblical principles and come up with Biblical doctrines based upon our interpretation of how to proceed, and what is acceptable or not.  But then, like in our personal lives, our questions seem to take up all the talking in the room.  Listening to God, hearing Him directly, is a long-lost art.  Those who claim to have heard His voice directly, are immediately ridiculed by those who claim His name, because often the messages they report appear self-serving, and reflect a lack of love that Jesus gave no example of here on earth.  Most of those who claim to know the will of God, have a message of condemnation for the remainder of us.  Is this the God we serve?  Has love that was meant to provide an escape from our sins, and our desire to sin, now become a judgment of hatred from God Himself for our sins?  Seems unlikely.  So what is the will of God.  What are we supposed to do?

Things changed after the cross.  Not the questions in our lives of how to move forward.  But the priorities and the methods of His church.  Peter recalls to John Mark in his gospel in chapter sixteen picking up in verse 15 saying … “And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.”  These were the words of Jesus Christ Himself, after the cross, after the resurrection.  He commands His church to “Go”.  But in our age we are content to stay put.  We prefer routine over adventure.  We prefer safety over the risk of movement into the unfamiliar.  We seek the rut of our lives, the routine of it.  Disruption of our routine becomes a fearful thing.  And Satan uses our fear to move, our fear to go, to keep the ministry locked up in the minds and hearts of those who already know it, at least in theory.  It is as the church was when only three women knew the gospel and would not speak it for fear.

If we are to make contact, we must be in proximity with others.  The gospel is not an ethereal concept.  It is a story of love, love that transforms, love that builds passion in the listener for those who have not heard it yet.  If we only crowd the pews we have ever crowded, we restrict the gospel to within the walls of the church, and demonstrate no passion for anyone other than ourselves.  The disciples already loved each other.  They had no need to fellowship together every week, once a week, and demonstrate what all of them already knew.  They had need to separate and spread the message of love to anyone and everyone who had not heard it yet.  Jesus does not even use the word men or women defining His target audience, He uses the word “creature”.  There is no-one beyond the love of Jesus.  He intends for ALL to hear, even the birds, dogs, cats, and nearby bugs if needs be, when spreading the good news of the gospel.  No matter what we think about the person we are destined to spread love to, we are to go to them, and share it.

The expectation is not for the hurting, dying, and erring ones to magically decide to come to church to hear the good news.  It is a command from Jesus that we “Go” to them.  That we take the love of Jesus directly to the person who needs it.  The gospel is a story of the love of God.  It is the story of Jesus Christ.  The life of Jesus Christ is unencumbered by the doctrines of the Pharisees, or the traditions of the Jewish faith in His day.  It is a more pure story, a living one.  It is the story of Jesus Christ, that causes us to re-look at scripture through His lens, not through the filters of our own preconceived ideas.  The story of Jesus Christ is not encumbered by the doctrinal beliefs of our day of our denominations.  Jesus was not a Catholic, or a Baptist, or a Mormon, or and Adventist.  Jesus is God.  Jesus was and is love incarnate.  Jesus carries no denominational affiliation.  He is Jew by birth, but God by religion. 

The story of Jesus, is the story of the gospel.  And what will happen when we Go?  John Mark continues in verse 16 saying … “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.”  Those who hear must believe first.  God the author of our faith so longs to spark it in one who has never heard the gospel message, or seen love demonstrated by a follower of Jesus.  The Holy Spirit, so longs to bless the ministry of love to one hearing and in need.  To create belief when none existed before.  When we demonstrate a passion of love for the listener, really care about them as Jesus cares about them, we create a lure of love that our God uses to fan the flames of belief in a heart where none existed before.  But this effort by our God is so horribly dampened, when our message and our example is distant, cold, unfeeling or apathetic.  When we truly do not care for our listener, we represent our God of passion, as a God who could care less.  So far from His truth.  When we seek to meet our own needs before we dare to inspect the needs of another, it is we who need the message of truth.

But a real demonstration of love from a follower of Jesus to one in need, positions the Holy Spirit to fan flames of belief and reception.  When there is no hate in us, and no hate in our words, or our message, our God can work miracles as never before.  This is not a message of judgment and consequences for sin.  This is a message of love, reconciliation, and transformation that Jesus brings to any who believe.  Those flames of belief grow from a small fire to a forest fire in the heart of the new convert.  Until love for God is so strong, the new convert wishes for a public recognition of it through the tradition and ministry of baptism.  John the Baptist held his ministry in the Jordan river.  Jesus baptized there as well.  And now as we Go into the world, we must find places we can dip the new converts into the water submersing their old lives of sin, and bring them forth new creatures and new creations unto God.  The symbolism deepens faith in the one who is baptized and the ones who witness it.  It deepens belief.  It is why Jesus requests it of us.

For the curse of our lives is unbelief.  A refusal to believe will be our undoing.  A resistance against the Holy Spirit who aches to fan flames of belief within us.  Hearing the fantastic story of Jesus Christ calls for faith to believe; it calls for the suspension of human logic, and the embrace of divine logic.  Few accept these stories without a demonstration of what it has done in the life of one who does believe.  If the life of the disciple or follower of Jesus is not one bit better than the life of the unconverted, why should they believe.  Transformation is real.  Transformation brings with it witness.  Our own testimony is what God has done for us, not what we have done for ourselves.  Our own testimony is unique to us.  It is a statement of what the gospel has done for us in practical terms and why we love another so much.  It is what drives us to go, and what drives us to care.  That fire is something tangible that others can see.  It is a difference that is discernable.

The story of Jesus is the story of the Son of God coming to reconcile man to God because of love.  It precludes all other methods of finding God the Father.  There is no method of meditation or self-sacrifice or enlightenment that leads one back to God the Father.  Buddha will not get the job done.  None of the Hindu Gods will do it either.  Attempting to worship God the Father without recognizing His Son as our Jewish and Muslim brothers attempt to do, will inevitably result in failure.  The transformation of the heart to lose the desire to sin, can only happen if you believe Jesus can and will do it for you.  A lack of belief in Jesus cuts off the only source that can relieve you from your desire to sin at all.  Without the embrace of Jesus as the Son of God, there is no mechanism to do it that works.  Those who believe they can be “good people” without embracing any religion, will find their subjective goodness is just not enough.  The embrace of the gospel is about more than just forgiveness, it is about transformation into something else, something better.  And Jesus is the singular mechanism for seeing it done.

John Mark continues in verse 17 saying … “And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; [verse 18] They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.”  These signs, these miracles, these tools to aid in meeting the needs of others, and deepening belief in those who have never heard.  All these signs follow “them that believe”.  Think about that for a moment.  Jesus does not restrict this to pastors, preachers, bishops, members of one faith or another.  Jesus does not restrict this to men only, He includes women, the aged, the youth, every race, from every culture.  The only prerequisite is belief in the gospel story.  In the name of Jesus is the key that unlocks these signs.  Not in the name of a generic God.  Not in the name of God the Father even, but in the name of His Son Jesus Christ.  This is a reaffirming of belief once again.

What is done through these signs is casting out the bondage to sin in the form of possession.  This is a recognition that our enemy is real, unrelenting, and no less active in our day than he was then.  Speaking in new languages facilitates communication of the gospel message to those you would otherwise not understand.  Serpents and deadly drinks were common ways in which people were poisoned in those days.  Jesus here offers protection against the assassin’s chief weapon.  And finally, healing others, healing the non-believers in the name of Jesus.  As with the ministry of Jesus, no conversion was required first.  Meeting the needs was done first.  A demonstration of the love of Jesus Christ was done first.  Only then was the heart more open to belief in what seems like the impossible.  There was no time constraint put on these signs and tools.  There was no restriction of who could utilize them, only that we utilize them in His ministry.

John Mark records the post script to this commission in verse 19 saying … “So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God. [verse 20] And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen.”  Jesus ascends not long after this commission.  And this time, the church did as the Lord had instructed.  The gospel was spread in that day.  But what about in ours?  Are we asking the right questions?  Given that these instructions are no less relevant than in those days; are our questions we ask of God for His will reflective of this fact.  Do we go left or right?  Does this include the directive by Jesus to Go and to spread the gospel.  Would that fact influence which way we think follows the will of God?  When it comes to questions of ministry, are we designing methods and systems to follow up our electronic outreach with personal outreach behind it?  Are we still going, or now only sitting?

Have we constrained our message of outreach to the pure gospel of the story of Jesus, or have we indoctrinated it with the tenets of our own denomination?  If our testimony is not unique, but reflective of others, then what have we to say personally.  What Jesus did for my mom or dad, or wife, is a good story, but what has He done for me personally is more impactful.  The gospel is an infecting virus that creates a passion to love others.  If it is not creating that passion in me, I have likely lost sight of what the real gospel is.  And this commission was given to ALL who believe.  The signs and tools of the ministry were granted to ALL who believe.  No age limits.  No racial implications.  To both men and women.  Perhaps it is time for our church to refocus on the pure message of the gospel; to Go, to reach out, and find ones that still need a tangible demonstration of what the love of God can do for them through you.

 

A Biased Media ...

What happens when the messenger wants something to be true?  Is the message corrupted by desire, or is the audience simply more skeptical of the messenger?  How could desire not impact what is said.  In this election cycle, there are strong opinions on either side.  But then, listening to those with strong opinions is not quite the same as listening to the source.  Once upon a time, our country had a news media not obsessed with corporate profit.  News organizations were largely loss-leaders for the entertainment divisions.  The news was considered a public service, mandated by the FCC to serve that interest.  To do news properly, one had to be extremely vigilant not to insert opinion, or preference, but to be devoid of it.  News was supposed to be a recitation of facts in order that an informed public could create its own opinions.  But today, news has become a corporate machine designed to create our opinions, providing only enough select information to do so.

Media itself has changed as well.  The internet has offered an explosion of personal opinion, bias, and anonymity.  Being responsible for the words you say in a face-to-face conversation, is a far cry from what is typed on a screen in absolute solitude.  Electronic friends are not the same thing as ones who could reach out and touch us in person.  Electronic friends are those of like mind, like preference, like bias on a particular topic.  Those of like mind congregate together reinforcing each other’s opinions but considering no new information that might alter them.  It would seem in our age, the only delivery system capable of offering information in a format we might consider when different than our own, are the comedy shows that focus on news related topics, despite the bias.  If we can laugh at reality, perhaps we can accept reality may not be exactly as we imagine it.

The world faced no such dangers in the time of Christ.  For news to travel it had to be face-to-face, or carrier pigeon mail to its recipient.  There was heavy responsibility for what words you said, for the person you said them to, knew it was you, and remembered what you said.  Bias still existed.  Preference still existed.  But friends in that day, had the luxury of knowing each other, understanding the history, putting the bias in context.  And so, news, while not centrally distributed, was still effective face-to-face despite the bias.  But stories of the impossible are still harder to believe, even when you know the source of the story.  To overcome common sense, takes great faith.  To believe what history, logic, and common sense say is impossible takes greater faith.  This is what our God asks.  He asks it still.  His messengers face this résistance still, because in addition, they want what they say to be true.

Good news, may represent the only time, when bias and truth align.  When something we have waited for, longed for, and hoped for becomes our reality; this is when bias and truth align without negative side effects or consequences.  A Father and a mother wants to see their children live, not just exist, but live.  Our Father wants this for us.  Our parents want it too.  To offer news in this regard is a great story, a happy story.  Peter recalls one to John Mark that formed the basis for the gospel story.  While Peter and John Mark wanted it to be true, it was true, bias and truth aligned.  The story begins in the Gospel of Mark in chapter sixteen, picking up in verse 1 saying … “And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him.”

Peter opens with a declarative whose significance cannot be overstated … and when the Sabbath was past.  Christ has finished resting from the work of our redemption, to now begin the work of our re-creation.  Without having paid this price, we could never be reconciled to God.  But a new day has dawned.  The first day of the week has arrived.  The first day of a new week, of a new phase of our reconciliation process.  The week is not at an end, but at its beginning.  And what happens now, is about what happens when something new has started.  Women of extreme courage are present once again.  The first ministers in the new covenant, in the new testament, in the new gospel, are to be women.  A hooker (now former), a mother, and a sister of Jesus with a famous name, have all come to anoint a dead body, which will never be found dead again; for death will hold no sway ever again.

Mark continues in verse 2 saying … “And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulcher at the rising of the sun.”  Before the sun has arisen to start the day, the Son of God has arisen to start the new day of our reconciliation.  Those pagan cultures that worship the sun in our solar system, will have no event to further commemorate their misguided beliefs.  For while it was still dark outside, in the dark of morning between midnight and before the crack of dawn; something wonderful has already occurred.  The tomb was enlightened with the light of many suns, the entire Roman garrison was laid back in the dirt at the brilliance of God emerging from this tomb.  All of these events having already transpired before the dawn.  This sunrise will not light the events of the resurrection, they have already occurred.

John Mark continues in verse 3 saying … “And they said among themselves, Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre? [verse 4] And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away: for it was very great.”  Upon arriving at the tomb, the Roman garrison has fled.  They are alone at this site, no soldier stretched out to meet them or offer assistance to them.  They begin to ask how three women will be able to move a stone at the entry of the tomb that it took nearly a dozen soldiers to place there?  If they cannot move the door, they will not be able to get to His body.  They persist in their mission, not realizing there is no need for it anymore.  And as they arrive, the stone is already moved.  This makes no sense.  The Romans have no interest in this Jew.  They resent guarding Him, and surely would have not wanted anything more to do with a rotting corpse.  Something is wrong, wonderfully wrong.

Peter continues the recollection to John Mark in verse 5 saying … “And entering into the sepulcher, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment; and they were affrighted.”  Entering the tomb they encounter an angel, who remained for just this mission.  Humanity fears the divine when it is encountered.  It could be the sin in us.  It could be the realization of what true purity is when it touches the likes of us.  We recoil.  We wonder if judgment is upon us now, without further time for repentance, or reformation.  Our fear is instinctive as it comes from the deceiver of souls who also fears what true purity looks like now.  We are too akin to darkness than to light.

Mark continues in verse 6 saying … “And he saith unto them, Be not affrighted: Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: he is risen; he is not here: behold the place where they laid him. [verse 7] But go your way, tell his disciples and Peter that he goeth before you into Galilee: there shall ye see him, as he said unto you.”  Before the gospel can be heard, or understood, we must lose our fear.  We must put aside our instinctive fear, and pay attention to something greater than our fear.  The first message of the gospel is herein defined.  The angel said it directly to these women.  The angel spoke the words of the gospel, the hope of the gospel to these women of extreme courage.  You seek Jesus.  He is NOT here.  He is arisen.  That is the gospel.  That is the good news, the great news.  It is both what we long for, what we want, and it is the truth.  Bias and truth aligned, as it can, ONLY when good news is spoken.

But beyond the angel’s declaration of the gospel itself.  He gives a command, a commission … to these three women.  They are to go to His disciples (and Peter) and tell them Jesus plans to meet them in Galilee as He had said to them before His death.  This is a specific message to be delivered to the people of God.  This is the first sermon to be spoken on earth.  It is to be short.  It is to be directly to the point.  It is to be directed at those who claim to follow Jesus the Christ, those who say they are His followers.  The first sermon is to be preached by women, by these three women of extreme courage.  The spices for this body will never be needed, but the message about a resurrection will never stop being needed.  It is not His death on the cross that is to be celebrated, but it is His resurrection from that death which is.  Those who wish to honor Jesus would do better to wear a stone rolled away from a tomb around their necks, than a wooden cross that commemorates only His death, not His victory over it.

And still the stubbornness of the men in our age is willing to proclaim that women should not preach.  Yet our God plainly thinks differently.  The prologue also being less than ideal as Mark concludes these thoughts in verse 8 saying … “And they went out quickly, and fled from the sepulcher; for they trembled and were amazed: neither said they any thing to any man; for they were afraid.”  The word of an angel was enough to make them tremble and fear.  But in these women of extreme courage, this was enough fear to make it fail.  Fear overcame commission.  Fear has always overcome our ability to spread the gospel.  Fear of our reputations being held in even less regard.  Fear that our sanity may not actually be quite intact.  Fear that our fondest hope is nothing more than self-hallucinations.  So these women believe what they have been told, but are unable to speak about it for fear.  Imagine how disappointed all of heaven must have been.

But where the words of an angel were not enough to conquer fear, this was a gospel that must get out.  The message could not be left unsaid.  The fear of messengers could not stand in its way.  The bias of believers could not stand in its way.  The limitations of the media could not stand in its way.  The gospel must be preached.  It must be heard.  It must have its chance to get right to the heart of one in need, right to you, right to me …