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Scary Good News
By Pastor Seth
As the male disciples run for their lives to Galilee, fearful of their fate by association, the women stay behind to tend to the body of an enemy of the state. Mark’s Gospel prioritizes women in the resurrection narrative, the ones societally deemed as mere supporting roles taking center stage in the revelation of the Divine. Used to being told to stick to the background, to stay out of the way, to keep quiet, Mary, Mary, and Salome dare to be seen with and deemed unclean by the corpse of their beloved Christ, likely familiar with anointing and wrapping body after body before, familiar with the sight of death and smell of decay intermixed with incense and the salty taste of tears. It is these three women who receive the Good News first. While the men hide, the women show up in full knowledge that their mere presence might mean meeting a similar end as their Lord. If that’s not courage, I don’t know what is.
Expecting to greet death under the shadow of grief, these women are met with an announcement of life — charged with preaching the first sermon of the Good News by an unnamed man in a white robe. Yet, they flee in terror and don’t say a word before the original ending of the Gospel comes to a close. Unlike the other Gospel accounts, complete with a Christ-cooked breakfast on the beach and a loose end-tying ascension, Mark’s Gospel ends with a pregnant pause and deafening silence as the women run in fear.
As we read the account of the resurrection as told by the Gospel of Mark, I invite us to consider the question: what is so scary about the Good News?
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