Failure of the First Christian Sermon
It was Mary Magdalene, and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and other women that were with them, which told these things unto the apostles. And their words seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not. Luke 24:10, 11.
In yesterday's reading an angel commanded the women to tell the disciples about the Resurrection, but they "fled from the tomb, for they trembled and were amazed. And they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid" (Mark 16:8, NKJV).
It is not difficult to see why. After all, to arrive at a tomb looking for a dead body but finding a living angel would unnerve the strongest of us. What is not so easy to understand is their fear and their silence. After all, they had received a message of hope and joy along with a specific commission to pass it on to the disciples.
Up to this point the Gospels portray the women as consistently being brave and doing well. But now they fail. Their fear and disobedience demonstrate an apparent inability to truly believe the good news. They are speechless in the face of the command to speak.
Here we find a paradox. Throughout much of the gospel story Jesus has commanded individuals to remain silent about the truth of who He is, while they shout it out anyway. But now we have a specific directive to tell what they have seen and yet the women remain silent.
But not for long. It apparently took a while before the truthfulness and importance of what they had seen and heard worked through their astounded minds. Luke records that they eventually do tell the apostles.
Yet they did not believe the women. And perhaps that is why the women hadn't passed on the message in the first place. In Jewish society women did not count as witnesses. But God didn't see it that way. He chose women to be the first witnesses of the Resurrection. And beyond that, He, through an angel, commanded them to preach the first fully Christian sermon--"He is risen!" Yet the men, good Christians that they were, could not take it from the mouth of a woman.
That fact tells us two things. One is the stubbornness of some men. And the other is about God's willingness to use all people to spread the good news of salvation accomplished.
Too many of us are locked up in little boxes of our own making. Like the disciples, we miss blessings when we reject ideas that don't line up with our preconceptions. And, also like the disciples, we refuse even the gospel from people who don't fit "our" model of God's messengers.
It was Mary Magdalene, and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and other women that were with them, which told these things unto the apostles. And their words seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not. Luke 24:10, 11.
In yesterday's reading an angel commanded the women to tell the disciples about the Resurrection, but they "fled from the tomb, for they trembled and were amazed. And they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid" (Mark 16:8, NKJV).
It is not difficult to see why. After all, to arrive at a tomb looking for a dead body but finding a living angel would unnerve the strongest of us. What is not so easy to understand is their fear and their silence. After all, they had received a message of hope and joy along with a specific commission to pass it on to the disciples.
Up to this point the Gospels portray the women as consistently being brave and doing well. But now they fail. Their fear and disobedience demonstrate an apparent inability to truly believe the good news. They are speechless in the face of the command to speak.
Here we find a paradox. Throughout much of the gospel story Jesus has commanded individuals to remain silent about the truth of who He is, while they shout it out anyway. But now we have a specific directive to tell what they have seen and yet the women remain silent.
But not for long. It apparently took a while before the truthfulness and importance of what they had seen and heard worked through their astounded minds. Luke records that they eventually do tell the apostles.
Yet they did not believe the women. And perhaps that is why the women hadn't passed on the message in the first place. In Jewish society women did not count as witnesses. But God didn't see it that way. He chose women to be the first witnesses of the Resurrection. And beyond that, He, through an angel, commanded them to preach the first fully Christian sermon--"He is risen!" Yet the men, good Christians that they were, could not take it from the mouth of a woman.
That fact tells us two things. One is the stubbornness of some men. And the other is about God's willingness to use all people to spread the good news of salvation accomplished.
Too many of us are locked up in little boxes of our own making. Like the disciples, we miss blessings when we reject ideas that don't line up with our preconceptions. And, also like the disciples, we refuse even the gospel from people who don't fit "our" model of God's messengers.
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