The Gospel of Mark 16:1-8
When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint Jesus. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. They had been saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. But he said to them, “Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.” So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.
Let us pray: Let us commend ourselves and all God’s children to his unfailing love, and pray for the grace of a holy life, that, with all who have died in the peace of Christ, we may come to the fullness of eternal life and the joy of the resurrection.
If you see a stranger outside your Church on Sunday morning, do you ignore the person or do you take time to find out who it is and invite them to join you? The stranger could be a messenger from God or maybe Jesus himself. So who was the person at the grave of Jesus that morning? Was it Jesus or was he there to just guide the visitors to the empty tomb? Maybe he was a messenger that was there to relay to the visitors what they had found and seen. It appears that he was an angel from God that had come to roll the stone back so they could peer into the empty tomb. Maybe He was Jesus? We can speculate and make our own minds up but what really matters is that we believe that the tomb was empty and Jesus was no longer trapped by death. That He had overcome death on this morning. Jesus had risen from the dead! Alleluia!
Let us pray: Faithful God as we go out into the world we pray that we may reflect your love in our families, our church and our community; so that the world can witness that we are followers of Christ and draw others into his loving care. This we pray in the Name of the Risen Lord. Amen
Reflections by Bob 