We can hardly imagine that morning in the garden. The stories themselves are confused, as if each person involved was bubbling over with the news - Jesus has risen from the tomb! In John's account, it is Mary Magdalene who finds the tomb empty, who runs and fetches Peter and "the other disciple", and then, alone again, comes face to face with two angels, and with Jesus, "supposing him to be the gardener." In Mark's gospel, Mary Magdalene is accompanied by two other women. An angel tells them Jesus has risen, and asks them to tell "the disciples and Peter." Yet they say nothing to anyone, "for they were afraid."
Matthew and Luke tell the same story with yet other details. And Paul, in 1 Corinthians 15:4-7, has his own account. None of them is consistent with the others - the number of women varies, Jesus first appears to different people at different times and in different places. Each writer describes a different set of events, but all agree on the essential thing - the tomb where Jesus was buried now lies empty!
I recently read two newspaper accounts about an ancestor who, in 1823, fell from some scaffolding and died. Clearly the two reporters had asked two different witnesses, and one reporter explained at length his own view of the causes of the accident. The differences were striking - had the victim overbalanced or was one of the planks loose, had he fallen on a railing or on another part of the scaffolding? But one thing was clear - the accident had made a great impression on those who witnessed it.
Even more so with the Resurrection. The details bring the story to life, but the central point of the story, the one where all accounts agree, is the empty tomb and the risen Lord - something beyond all expectation.
The people who heard the story would have heard other stories about the dead being raised. Elijah, after all, had raised the son of the widow of Zarephath (1 Kings 17:22), and Jesus himself had raised Jairus' daughter and Lazarus. But now the healer himself was dead - crucified for no reason, other than the perversity of human nature. All hope was lost.
The message of the Resurrection is that even when all hope is lost, hope can rise again. Even when everything seems to lead to death, death has lost its power. There is no despair so deep that there is not the offer of a fresh start. There is no sin so awful that we cannot bury it and begin a new life.
This is not simply a message to listen to, although when we hear or read the Easter story, we can sense and share some of the joy and the awe of the women and the disciples. The Resurrection is also an offer. We have the chance to let Jesus share with us the full burden of our foolish lives, in order that we can share with him the new life of hope and joy - in order that we can start again, and this time get it right.
The Church is the body of the risen Christ. We are the resurrection people, "made alive in Christ" (1 Cor 15:22). When we were baptized, we shared Christ's death, so that we could share Christ's resurrection (Rom 6:4). Our experience is not like Lazarus' or Jairus' daughter's. When they were raised, they just carried on living, taking up where they had left off. But the risen life is a new life. We pay lip-service to the idea of "newness of life". Let us live so that we, and those around us, really can spot the difference!
HD