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Upcoming Sermons & Devotional Message
April Sermons 2025
4/27 - The Emmaus Road
Luke 24:13-17 Luke 24:25-32
May Sermons 2025
5-4- I Need a Nap
Exodus 20:8-11 Psalms 46:10+11
5-11 Mother Memories
Proverbs 31:10-22 Proverbs 31:23-31
5-18 I Need a Miracle
2 Kings 4:1-7 John 11:35-46
5-25- Remember
Joshua 3:5-8 Joshua 3:14+17,4:1-7
Devotional Message : These will change 1-2 times a week. Stop by often to read the new message.
SOME THOUGHTS ON THE RESURRECTION—FEAR AND GREAT JOY
After the angel told the women at the tomb that Jesus had been raised from the dead, and they examined the place where he had been buried, they did not shout "ALLELUIA!"” or announce, “CHRIST IS RISEN!” Those are the exclamations we wanted them to say, but they didn’t. We expect others to sing, “Christ the Lord is RISEN TODAY!”—but some are silent.
“Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid” (Mark 16:8).
Instead, the women fled the tomb trembling and bewildered. The words are even stronger in the original Greek text: tromos and ecstasis. Trauma and ecstasy gripped them. Fear and great joy. They said nothing to anyone. They were afraid. Mark’s Gospel ends in silence, and we never read of Jesus' risen appearance. To be honest, Mark’s Gospel account of the Easter story leaves us longing for more.
But what if the author intentionally wanted to end with silence? Surely, he knew the story. The women must have told somebody, or the author would never have known the details. He’d heard the story passed down from those who knew Jesus to those who now gathered in Jesus’ name. John Mark wrote his Gospel so the story would live beyond that original generation of eyewitnesses—for those who had never seen Jesus or heard Him speak. The silence was for them.
Mark’s silence is also for us. Of all the Easter Gospel stories, Mark invites us to stand where those first trembling witnesses stood. Those three women didn’t yet see Jesus—neither do we. They didn’t hear Jesus call their names—neither have we. They weren’t invited to touch His wounded hands—neither have we. But they believed—and so too can we.
During the time between their experience at the empty tomb and Mark’s writing, the women eventually did see the risen Jesus—and it shaped their lives. They did speak—or we wouldn’t know the story today. Their testimony was shaped by fear and great joy, and they invited others to believe.
Today, we stand where they stood—trembling and bewildered—between trauma and ecstasy—balancing fear and great joy—and we must decide for ourselves if we truly believe in the resurrection of Jesus.
I believe in the resurrection, do you?
Bishop Jeff Greenway