Title: Lord Wherever You Are
Contents
Today's text is an article about the resurrection of Jesus written by Mark. Jesus died about three o'clock in the afternoon on a Friday, before the Sabbath began. And about three hours later, at sunset, the Sabbath began. At the end of the day and as soon as the Sabbath was over, that is, at about six o'clock on a Saturday, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome would have bought spices to sprinkle on Jesus' body. Spices did not prevent the corpse from decomposing. It could only alleviate the stench of decaying corpses. Nevertheless, taking spices for the body of the dead was a sign of love, respect and devotion. Today, it is equivalent to taking flowers to the graveyard. The women bought spices as soon as the market or store selling spices opened after the Sabbath when buying and selling was forbidden, but it must have been too late to get to the tomb. So they calmed their impatience, waited until early morning the next day and ran to the tomb of Jesus at sunrise (verse 2 of the text).
The three women rushed to the tomb of Jesus, but were worried about how they could get into the tomb. When they arrived, the stone had already been rolled. And the stone was also very large (verse 4 of the text). The women who went into the tomb found there a young man in a white robe (v. A man in white is a customary expression to describe an angel. The Gospel of Matthew, which reports the same event, consistently refers to him as an angel (Matthew 28:2, 5). The women must have been very surprised. The angel said to the women: “Do not be alarmed. You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen and is not here. Purple. where I put him. Go and say to his disciples and Peter, ‘Jesus is going before you into Galilee, and there you will see him, just as he told you before.’” These words of the angel are significant words to be remembered well.
First, “You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified.” one word. The phrase “Jesus of Nazareth crucified” has the meaning of highlighting Jesus Christ as a real person who lived in a specific area in a specific history. I am saying that Jesus Christ is not a fictional character in legend or myth.
Next “He has risen, and he is not here. Purple. where they put him.” one word. These words make clear the historicity and reality of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Mary Magdalene and Mary and Salome, the mother of James, were eyewitnesses who followed Jesus to the crucifixion and watched him to the end (Mark 15:40). And they are the people who saw the body of Jesus who had been taken down from the cross by Joseph of Arimathea, wrapped in linen cloths, put it in a tomb dug in the rock, and rolled a stone and laid it on the door of the tomb (Mark 15:46-47). The angel showed the women that the tomb was empty, confirming that the one who lay there had risen and was no longer there. "Purple. where they put him.” One thing is to point out that the women did not have any spiritual or fantastic experience of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, but a visual experience of the historical facts.
And “Go and say to his disciples and Peter, ‘Jesus is going before you into Galilee, and there you will see him, just as he told you before.’” one word. Today, we especially want to reflect on the meaning of this word. The angel told the women to go and talk to Jesus' disciples and Peter. It means that the relationship between Jesus and his disciples is not over. It means that they still need to meet Jesus. Although the disciples abandoned Jesus and all fled, their sins have already been forgiven, and it implies that their fellowship with the Lord and their status as leaders will be restored. In particular, the reason he named Peter separately from the disciples, telling him to “go and speak to his disciples and Peter,” was because of the fact that he denied the Lord three times, who himself admitted that he was the chief disciple of Jesus. It must have been to reassure and reassure them in advance that they would not be excluded from the reunion between them.
This is a time of so many people who have failed, who are discouraged, who are desperate and who have lost all hope. At this time, we must be the ones who spread the resurrected Lord and the Resurrection Lord. Let us know that there is a Lord who is everywhere and who visits everyone to give us forgiveness of all sins and comfort and hope and courage for a new life. So, I hope that we can all become instruments of the work of the Lord's resurrection, who transforms despair into hope, disappointment into enthusiasm, despair into recovery, death into life, and meaningless life into a life of mission. Lord, who was in Galilee before the disciples, let's become us who meet Him in the field of our lives every day. Also, let's strive to be us who enable people around us to meet the Lord wherever we are.