Skip to main content

The Easter that didn't happen

Now on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb, and saw that the stone had been rolled away.  She ran to Simon Peter and John, and said, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have put him!"

So Peter and John ran to the tomb; and in the growing light they could see the body of Jesus, exactly where it had been laid.  "Foolish woman," they said.  "Were you not there when they took him down from the cross?  Did you not see the blood and water come from his side?  Tend to the dead with your ointments and spices, and trouble us no longer with stories of missing bodies."

But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look in, and saw that Jesus' body was indeed still there.  Then she washed it, and anointed it with perfume and precious spices, and returned home.

On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the disciples were together with the doors shut, for fear of the Jews.  And they said to one another, "The Rabbi has been crucified, and if we are not careful we shall die next.  Let us therefore return to Galilee, and decide how best to preserve his teachings and honour his memory."  And this seemed good to them all.

So they returned home and lived quietly, gathering once a year to remember their Teacher, and mourning that he died before he could bring in the Kingdom of God, of which he had so eloquently spoken.

If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.
1 Corinthians 15:14

Comments

Helen Paynter said…
Very good, thank you Martha. I'm preaching from this text on Sunday, and might just pinch this, if it's OK with you? Makes you look at things from a different perspective.
Martha said…
Go ahead Helen - I'm always happy when people pinch my blog! I might do some kind of follow-up post, but can't promise it before Sunday - and this seemed to stand up on its own anyway.

Popular posts from this blog

I have a piano!!!

OK, maybe we should have bought a stand! But who cares if it doesn't have the most aesthetically pleasing setting - it's great to have something to play on again. My most loving and wonderful husband had obviously picked up a few signs that I was missing my piano (no, I wasn't hinting that badly!) and a few days ago said, "I was just in the guitar shop and they had a big sale on keyboards - do you want to take a look?" So we went and browsed around a bit, and he firmly dragged me away from the $1000+ models and made me look at some more reasonable ones, and after some discussion we went for this little Casio. It's more portable than the type with a built-in stand, which was a big consideration when we know we're moving in less than 2 years and I had to leave my old one behind for precisely that reason. It's got weighted keys so the touch is good; the sound could be better but it renders Bach quite prettily even if not really coping with Rachm...

Working on sunshine

Freeeee electricity!  No, seriously.  This guy came and knocked on the door one day, and I don't usually pay any more attention to random strangers trying to sell me something at the door than you probably do, but I guess he must have said "free" enough times to penetrate my consciousness, so I found myself agreeing to have someone check our house's suitability for solar panels.  And another guy turned up, and measured; and another one, and we signed; and a few more, and put up scaffolding and panels and meter boxes and cable; and suddenly, if we're careful, we can avoid paying for any electricity during daylight hours, because it's all generated right up there above our heads. Of course, we have the British government to thank for this, which probably means we're paying for it somewhere along the line.  The Department for Energy and Climate Change (presumably it's actually against climate change rather than for it, although you never know) has...

It isn't that important to me...

When we went sailing a few weeks ago, I mentioned to one of the club members that I had tried sailing a topper as a teenager, and really enjoyed it.  He asked: "Why haven't you done any sailing since then?" Well. On the face of it, that's a perfectly reasonable question.  On the other hand, why don't we do all these many things that we would probably enjoy if we did them? Because our weekends are already full.  Because we don't know anyone else who does it.  Because it will cost money.  Because we're afraid it will take up all our time. Because the kids don't want to. Because, quite frankly, it isn't that important to us. Which isn't really something you can say to someone who's been sailing for longer than you've been alive.  But that's pretty much what it comes down to. That brief conversation, and a similar one with a tennis instructor, served to point out the difference between those who are "in" an ...