🦁 Easter 1-7

Readings: Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24; Song of Solomon 3:1-11; Mark 16:1-8. 

Reflection

Good morning. This is Tim Tribble coming to you from Sacramento, California. Today's readings come to us from Psalm 118, verses one and two and 14 to 24. The Song of Solomon, Chapter three, verses 1 to 11 and the Gospel of Mark, Chapter 16, verses 1 to 8.

In today's reading, we have the Song of Solomon. Very interesting book to read. There's people who aren't quite sure why it was included in today's reading. The first part is titled The Bride's Dream. And this is where the story is being told of a bride and her dream of finding the one who my soul loves. And then the second part of it is Solomon The rise through the wedding and talks about him being carried on his litter. 60 Mighty Men, The men of Israel wearing swords, experts in war, and each restored his sword as his story against the terror. By night.

And it's an interesting reading. There are some analogies that can be made you know, especially in the bride's dream. And that can also be an analogy for us looking for God and looking for the one who who my soul loves, the one who we believe in the most, the one that will will be true, true to us. His people most certainly are. So we have the reading from Saul song of Solomon, where when we get into the Gospel of Mark and this was our reading for Easter portion of it and this is the resurrection.

And in Mark's version, so we have Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James. So there's four Marys, by the way. There's Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, Mary the mother of Jesus. And well, there's one reference to the other. Mary don't know who that is either. Mary was a very popular name and Solomon. So these were women who were associated with Jesus. These were women who had been around his ministry, had followed him and had been part of something that gets missed a lot in the patriarchal interpretations as Jesus the 12 to say talk about his whole disciples. And they were all men. There were a lot of women, and there are a lot of stories where Jesus interacted with women, and women were worshipping Jews and did things for him and help Jesus in his ministry. So the three women went early in the morning. Now we have to back up here and get a little bit of context. The Jewish Sabbath starts at 6 p.m. on Friday night and ends at 6 p.m. on Saturday night. Roughly depending on where you are, but sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday. All right then.

There are certain things you can and cannot do on the Sabbath. Now, the Sabbath does allow for the anointing of the body. But the spices, they would have need to do that they could not have purchased on the Sabbath. Remember, there was no time to come down from the cross and put them in. There was no time to do it. So they were coming back a couple of days later to try and and and properly tend to his body because they weren't they weren't expecting the resurrection as much as he talked about it. No one saw it coming.

So they had gotten the spices So early on Sunday morning at sunrise, they would have gone out because then they could see where they're going and they were gone. The temperatures on here on their way. They got up early in the first day of the week when the sun had risen. They went to the tomb and on their way, their sister, who's going to move that big stone. These are big stone disks. And it would take several men to move them, not just three one, but they arrive and the first thing they see is the stone is rolled away and other versions of the story and other storytellers, whereas we we have the Roman guards. There's no talk of this here, there. In other versions, we had a gardener, and this one there was a young man sitting on the right side of the tomb dressed in white robe. Of course, they're like, Wait, what? They were alarmed. This very well could have been an angel because he what he says is do not be alarmed. You see Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. So he's talking about another other person, the third person here. He was crucified. He is risen. He is not here. See the place where they lay them. And you can see that, you know the rock is empty. Go tell all the disciples. And Peter, I love that part that he's going before you to Galilee. So they're still in Jerusalem.

The disciples. The men are hiding in the upper room where they had the Last Supper, Maundy Thursday. They're afraid to go out. They figure they're going to be next because they're going to be a witch hunt. They killed the leader. Now they're going to come and get the rest of them. I mean, that's the way we do business, right? So the women come out, they're the ones they're going to go tend to the body. They're the ones that go out, even though there's this thing about getting, you know, everybody's concerned about going after the followers of Jesus. They go to turn to the body. They're the ones that find it when he's not there. And they're the ones that are told, go tell the disciples and Peter, I just love this. And Peter, I remember Peter has denied Christ three times.

He might use Christian wood for the crucifixion. So make sure Peter knows to call him out by name and he is going before them. The goal is now they've got to get on the road and get to Galilee and you will see them there just as Jews had told them. So they left. Then they were afraid. It's the the two words here. They were trembling and astonishment had seized them. So they were shaking. I mean, you know, somebody's supposed to be dead and they're not dead. That's a pretty emotional, emotional experience for someone to have. And of course, they were astonished, absolutely stunned. How did this happen then? All of a sudden, click, click, click, click, click. You know, you see the gears going hard and clunk. Oh, this real. This was real. This is it. You know, that thing that we go through. You watch people when they start to realize something, you see the gears going, click, click, click, then boom, it's there. So here we have the women and they and they said nothing for they were afraid. They didn't go out and announce it and go running back. They did go further on. You'll hear they did go till they did tell the disciples and Peter who they were running down the hall. You were right in the heart of the women. That's a whole nother story. They had to go see for themselves. And then they do wind up meeting Jesus.

But this is something the power of the story is this is the resurrection. Jesus said he would rebuild the temple in three days. This is what they were talking about. This is the New Covenant is now in place. The very beginning of it. Christ was crucified. Christ has died. Christ has risen. Death has no more power. The power of death has been taken away. And there are, you know, back then, there still are what we refer to as death cultures, people. Absolutely. Just on about death. The power of death has been taken away.

Christ is risen. We have the New Covenant. And now it's time to get things in line to start to go, to spread the word.

Amen.