Description
This year we have two story telling options for sharing the Easter Gospel. We are invited to tell the story from John’s Gospel, where it is well known and there is lots of detail, or from Mark, where the story is – in typical Markan fashion – short and sharp, with lots of dramatic effect. John has the race to the tomb by the two disciples, the tale of Mary meeting the ‘gardener,’ and going on to run and tell the disciples she has ‘seen the Lord, and a number of stories of sightings of Jesus post resurrection in order to help readers to understand what has happened to Christ and what Resurrection might indeed be like.
Just as the sun is rising on the third day, Easter Sunday, the women set out for the tomb. The pervasive darkness (with the consequent inability to see clearly) reminds us of the darkness at the dawn of creation, at the beginning of time. As the “Sun was rising” the women discover the “Son has also risen.” This double entendre is perhaps suggesting the idea that this new dawn hints at new life, new life that is ripe with a promise of the renewal of all of Creation.
When the women get to the tomb, the stone which is “very great” has been rolled away. The moving of this stone is no ordinary event… something quite extraordinary has caused it to shift from the opening to the tomb.
At the entrance to the tomb there is the strange young man, dressed in white. Who is this young man? The text in this gospel doesn’t call him an angel, but the white clothing hints at the idea that something heavenly is going on – just as Jesus’ whiter than white clothing when he was transfigured on the mountain top showed us that something heavenly was going on.
