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CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – I hope you had a blessed Easter.
All four of the gospels tell the story of Christ’s resurrection, but each has different details. There is one of the Easter stories that you almost never hear in church on Easter Sunday. It is the darkest and the most ambiguous. Yet it’s the one that I best-identify with personally.
Consider Mark’s Easter story: A young man greets the women at the tomb. He tells them “He is risen. Tell his disciples He will meet them in Galilee.”
In the other gospels the women rush to find the 12 to report what they saw. In Luke’s telling, two of the disciples ran to the tomb to see for themselves. In Matthew, Jesus stands before them in the locked room and shows them that he is not a ghost. In John, Mary Magdeline encounters Jesus at the tomb.
But in Mark’s Easter story, the women quietly leave Jesus’ tomb and tell no one. The story ends there. The more cautious, most quiet Easter story is the one that resonates with me. I tend to be hyper-logical. If I was a witnesses to his crusifixion, I would have wondered if the Jesus story ended there. Despite all of the things he might have taught me and I would have seen, I would have questioned whether I’d wasted the last three years of my life following Him. My first thoughts about telling the resurrection story to others was that I, too, might be strung up on a cross. I would be cautious and hesitant. I tend to go slow.
And yet, obviously, the women did tell their story. They are the first evangelists, even though they were slow to believe.
God, forgive me, for the times that I am slow to be convinced or am hesitant in my faith. Keep working within me. I hope both you and I will be guided towards a bolder witness.
Chris Conley
I hope that you’ll become a regular giver to the Gospel TLC. It’s a residential program for men who would otherwise be homeless while they try to lead addiction-free lives.
If you’d like to make a monthly donation, here’s a link.
The men at the Gospel TLC also cook their own meals. They need food like meats, milk, eggs and cheese. Those items can be dropped off at the Gospel TLC building near the hospital in Weston at Cross Pointe Boulevard.
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