Daily Devotions

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”

As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” And immediately they left their nets and followed him.

As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him. Mark 1:14-20

Mark tells us that Jesus’ first sermon was nineteen words long. It is the biblical Gettysburg Address. Most of the words are worth a sermon all to itself but we don’t have room for that so let’s quickly run through them.

“Time.” There are two words for time in Greek. Chronos is sequential time. It is watching the hands move on a watch. Kairos means consequential time, the right time, the critical time. It is that moment when the robbers hear “OK boys, the gig is up!” An alcoholic might think of the difference between “closing time” and the “time I got arrested and hit rock bottom before I got sober.”

The “kingdom” or the “reign” of God. These terms are among the politically subversive ideas in Mark. They signify God being the ruler, the one from Whom we take our marching orders, not Caesar. The kingdom or the reign of God signifies a relationship marked by loyalty, devotion, and faithfulness. This kingdom is “drawing near” in the person of Jesus. Unlike Caesar, God doesn’t use violence, coercion, or manipulation to entice followers. God uses love because God is love. We should always, by the way, be very wary of earthly rulers who “love” us and seek for us to “love” them in return. That’s how Caesar would have used that word. Jesus’ love landed him on a cross. Very different.

“Repent” means turning around, reversing course, changing our minds, and changing our ways. To “repent” isn’t “feeling sorry about your sins” – that is contrition or remorse – repentance is the recognition that the path we’re on is a dead end and we’re willing to stop and do something different.

“Believe” is more than being intellectually convinced that something is true. That is part of it but it doesn’t capture the full meaning. I always think about the analogy of a chair. Someone tells me that a chair will support my weight. If I didn’t know that before but now do, that is knowledge, the first movement of faith. If I agree with them, that is assent, but I still don’t believe. Only when I actually try it out, and physically sit down on the chair, which is trust, do I fully believe what they are saying to me.

To believe is to trust. It isn’t merely about our heads or our hearts, it is about our whole bodies, our whole being.

And the good news that Jesus brings stands in stark contrast to the good news that Caesar brings. It is the newness, the fullness, of life for all people which will be marked by love, mutual service, and “enoughness” for all. It is not about the dominance, the insatiable empire, the worldly adoration, that Caesar seeks. It is the difference between a local leader forcing all the citizens to line the roads to put on a good show when Caesar comes to town and an impromptu flash mob laying palm branches and their own clothing on the road to welcome Jesus.

Then Jesus hits the road. Two paragraphs later, he has four friends joining him in his mission. His missio dei – his God-given mission, mandate, and purpose for being. He has literally called his friends with the invitation, “Follow me” and they do. They immediately recognize that what Jesus is about is much more important, hopeful, and helpful than fishing for a living. Do we?

Let us pray: Dear Lord, let today be the day that we hand the wheel of our lives back to you. Again. Take us, use us, always to your glory and to the common good of all people. We know the allure of the dead-end roads we have been traveling. Count us among your followers. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him. Mark 1:9-13

I never knew the date of my baptism until I was filling out the application form for seminary. Evidently, I didn’t need to know the date until then. I was able to live my entire life to that point, all those days since November 27, 1960, blissfully unaware of the date of my baptism. Should I have been surprised to admit that my baptism meant absolutely nothing to me?

Many years later, after my cousin moved into my Grandma’s old house, he and his wife went through all of the treasures that had laid long forgotten in her basement. They sorted the stuff out, cousin by cousin, and then one day a box arrived in my mail with all sorts of wonderful things in it. Including my baptism certificate. Only then did I learn who my baptismal sponsors, my godparents, were. Not a peep from them over the years. Should I have been surprised to admit that my godparents were absolutely meaningless to me, all that time, and since that time?

I have come to learn – first by going along with what my professors taught me and what I was expected to parrot from them, then by life experience – that my baptism actually was a pretty big deal. It was FULL of meaning. Lots of promises were made that day. Few were kept.

My parents promised to raise me in the faith. To see that I learned the basics of the faith along the way. To see that I was in church on Sunday mornings until I had a car of my own. My sponsors promised to help them with all of that. The church promised to be there for me.

Honestly, the only one that kept their promise was the church. For the rest of my life, in every place I have lived, I have been surrounded by Christian communities that stood like the prodigal son’s father, always looking down the road, anxiously hopeful that I would find my way home. And, with God as my guide, I did. And they told me, because God loved me, because Jesus died for me, and because I was baptized on a Sunday afternoon in 1960, when I walked through their doors, I was coming home.

Jesus public coming out party happened along the shores of the Jordan River. Like all of those other desperate people looking for something that their faith could hold on to, some reassurance that God wasn’t through with them, some promise that things would get better, he slogged through the mud, negotiated the slippery rocks, until he rested in the arms of John, who gently lowered him into the love of God.

The heavens were torn open – like the temple veil will be ripped in two when we get there later – and God’s affirming words thundered. Even as Jesus blew the water out of his nose, he knew, in his heart of hearts, he was God’s child. He was loved. His father was proud of him.

My father didn’t make it to my baptism. It was just my mom, the pastor, and his wife as a witness. But that wasn’t about God and it wasn’t about me. As far as God was concerned, and as far as I was concerned, I too was beloved. A work of art, crafted by the creator of the universe. That ain’t bad!

But life didn’t get easier for Jesus. It got harder. Baptism isn’t a “Get Out of The Wilderness Free” card. Baptism IS the assurance that, even when we’re alone in the wilderness, we’re not alone. And even though it feels like we will never get out of the wilderness, one day we will.

When will we ever learn that it is the wilderness that brings us the assurance of faith?

Let us pray: In your baptism, O Lord, you identify yourself with us. You don’t scold us from the front of the room, you sit in the desk with us. You don’t sit with the cool kids in the lunch room, you come back to the corner and sit with us. You might even have had pimples when you were a teenager. Through all these years, you are still with us. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” Mark 1:4-8

If I told you that there were two young men standing at your front door, just about to ring your door bell, wearing short-sleeved white shirts and ties, their bicycles parked on your sidewalk, you would immediately have an emotional response to the possibility of their actually ringing the door bell. You already know a lot about who they are. You might welcome them. You might not.

That is one side of the power behind the uniforms people wear. The other side is how the uniform helps those guys do their jobs. All uniforms work that way.

Mark’s description of John immediately (there’s that word again) gives away his identity. John is a prophet. One who speaks for God. One who interprets the present time, not one who predicts the future. But why are throngs of people heading out to the wilderness to get what he has to offer?

I believe that all four of the gospels were written primarily to Jewish audiences, knowing that those audiences might also include “Jewish sympathizers”, or people with an interest in Jewish faith or Jewish community even though they hadn’t taken the plunge of baptism or circumcision. And I believe that Mark was written after the destruction and devastation of Jerusalem (67-70 CE) at the hands of the Roman army. That puts it in the early to mid 70’s.

Times of tragedy and change, changes either for good or ill, always prompt us toward spiritual questions. Why did this bad thing happen? Are the gods behind it? What will God do about it? Is it our fault? Is it something we did or failed to do? The new Taylor Swift song, written as she was thinking about her mother’s cancer, includes the line, “Desperate people find faith, so now I pray to Jesus too.” I think that Mark was writing to a desperate community.

Why were the crowds streaming out to the wilderness? In part, they were recreating the story of Israel. The people of Israel in bondage in Egypt, called the cross the Red Sea, sent wandering in the wilderness, eventually finding a place in their Promised Land. That is their defining story. We also have a defining story as Americans, we just can’t agree about what it is. Is it the story that began in 1492, or 1619, or 1776? Because we can’t agree on our defining story, we don’t know what to do with ourselves today. But we’ll figure it out eventually. God never leaves God’s people in the wilderness forever.

So Mark tells us that the people went to the wilderness to be baptized by John – always the sign of death and new life. They sought forgiveness of their sins. They wanted a better future. They were willing to acknowledge that part of the answer to their spiritual questions was, “Yes, in lots of ways, you blew it. But God isn’t going to hold that against you.” That was great news, well worth a really long walk.

Then John says that there is still something better to come. Or better, someone better still to come.

Let us pray: Dear Lord, when all around us is shaking and quaking and all of the foundations of life seem to be crumbling away, we know that is where you stand ready to let us fall so that you can build something new in us. May we always welcome those voices that guide us to you, and may we live in the forgiveness of our misguided attempts to be gods unto ourselves. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

“The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

As it is written in the prophet Isaiah, “See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way; the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.’” Mark 1:1-3

The vast majority of Bible scholars believe that Mark was the first of the four gospels to be written. Further, most believe that the writers of both Matthew and Luke were holding copies of Mark when they wrote their versions of the Jesus story, each with their own purposes. John was written later and very much independently.

The rationale for this way of seeing things is pretty simple. Mark is the shortest book. Everything in Mark is also in both Matthew and Luke. That is the basic argument that Mark was written first.

Both Matthew and Luke make little tweaks to the stories they found in Mark. They changed them slightly, we have to assume, to improve the story for their own purposes. Some stories are only in Matthew, others only in Luke. This is the basic argument that each of the gospel writers structured and told their stories with specific purposes.

And there are stories that appear both in Matthew and Luke but not in Mark. That is the argument that there was another written source, now lost to history, that consisted of the sayings of Jesus. Scholars call that source “Q”, from the German word for source, “quelle.”

Personally, I like the idea that, even in the first century, someone decided to write down the things they either heard Jesus say or heard that Jesus once said. Even then someone was more interested in what Jesus actually said than in constructing some grand narrative to structure some point they wanted to make.

Having said all of that as a basic background, today we begin our slow walk through Mark. Immediately – and you will come to see how important that word is to Mark – Mark tells us who Jesus is. Jesus is the Christ, the anointed one, not Caesar Augustus, who also claimed to be the anointed one. Jesus is the Son of God, not Caesar Augustus, who also claimed to be the son of god. And what Mark is writing he calls “good news”, using the same word that was used to describe the birth and coming reign of Caesar Augustus.

Certainly Mark is a work of spiritual writing but we simply can never put aside or forget that Mark is also a work of subversive writing. He tells us the story of Jesus within the story of the cultural and political realities of his day. I believe that tension is essential in appreciating what Mark had to say then and how that impacts how we hear his words today.

Further, by reaching back to the words of the prophet Isaiah in beginning his story, Mark is doing that very same thing. He is applying the language of his spiritual tradition to the cultural and political realities in which he lived. We are free to, and we ought to, do the same thing.

Mark’s story begins in the wilderness. At the edges. He uses the power of words. And the note he sounds is that something big is about to happen.

Let us pray: Thank you Lord for the witnesses to the faith who have gone before us. To the writers of scripture and to those who so carefully attended to and preserved their words for us. Give us open hearts, open minds, open ears, that we might hear. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:16-20

“But some doubted…” Why did Matthew include that detail? Why do those words jump off the page?

These are the closing verses to Matthew’s gospel and the opening act in the future of the Christian movement. What does Jesus want his followers to do? To go into the world where they live. To make disciples by baptizing and teaching. I don’t think we need to be reminded that making disciples (those who actually follow Jesus in their lives by doing the things that Jesus did) is not the same thing as “signing people up to the membership list of a club.” Or maybe we do.

Jesus wraps his call to action with two reassuring messages. First, he opens with a reminder that he retains authority, and therefore accountability. He is in charge. He is the boss. It is right to respond in obedience to his commands. And then he closes with a promise, that he will be with them always, to the very end.

“But some doubted….”

Those three words don’t change a thing about Jesus’ words to his disciples. They don’t change a thing in how Matthew tells the story. Matthew could have left those three words out and no one would have been the wiser.

Unlike the conspirators who concocted a story to cover their tracks, Matthew proves willing to tell the truth. Here’s the truth – for 2000 years now – many people have been so committed to the truth of Jesus that they have obediently done what he commanded. They have loved and served in Jesus’ name. They have walked with people to baptism and continuing maturity. They have created opportunities for Christian community to gather. And all the along the way, some doubted. More likely, all along the way, all doubted at some point.

Someone smarter than me once said that “doubt is the ants in the pants of faith.” Doubt isn’t the opposite of faith, it is faith’s dance partner. Certainty is the opposite of faith. The question is never “Do I doubt?” but always “What happens when I doubt my doubts? Where shall I take my doubts…or where will they take me?”

Jesus has come to set us free. Certainty will never set us free. Only truth can do that. Truth that is a person, still with us now, to the end of the age.

Let us pray: Thank you Lord for those people who first brought us to you. Thank you for the songs and prayers that reached our ears long before we understood anything beyond how good it felt to be held close to our mothers or fathers. Thank you for the faithfulness of the saints before us to carry the message of your love and message to the world. Use us to do the same. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

While they were going, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests everything that had happened.

After the priests had assembled with the elders, they devised a plan to give a large sum of money to the soldiers, telling them, “You must say, ‘His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.’ If this comes to the governor’s ears, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.”

So they took the money and did as they were directed. And this story is still told among the Jews to this day. Matthew 28:11-15

So here we go again. Fake news. Cover your tracks. Want to beat a story to the punch? Tell a whopper. The more afraid of the truth you are, the more outrageous your story.

You’re missing a body? From a carefully sealed tomb? Guarded by Roman soldiers? Obviously, a tax collector and a couple of Galilean fishermen must have out-smarted them. Yeah, yeah, that’s what happened.

The priests and the elders were the ones who hatched this plan. Again, this isn’t about their faith. It isn’t about their Jewishness. It is about how people with power will do anything to keep their power. Truth? Justice? Love of neighbor? None of that matters.

Or maybe it does.

Maybe the priests and the elders truly were morally convinced that Jesus represented a real threat to the health and welfare of the people. Maybe they saw in Jesus, not just someone who threatened their privileged positions of spiritual authority, but someone who threatened the physical security of the people in their charge. Maybe none of them wanted to needlessly stir up the Roman tiger.

If so, they might have felt their actions were justified. But they were flat out wrong. History would prove them wrong. Thirty years later their fears would be realized but Jesus would have nothing to do with it. Thirty years later, a serious attempt would be made to kick the Romans out of Jerusalem. It wouldn’t end well. It would be devastating.

Two old sayings come to mind. “The proof is in the pudding.” “Sooner or later, the chickens will come home to roost.”

There is more than one way to appreciate this whole story. We can look at it from the point of view of what it tells us about something that happened a long time ago. Or we can look at it from the point of view of how it gives us insights into human nature. Either road takes us to the same destination – which story will guide our lives?

Let us pray: Lord, you are truth. Your Word is truth. Your way of being in the world is truth. Yet there are so many other voices clamoring for attention, clamoring to be heard, demanding to be obeyed. Keep us centered in the truth. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.” Matthew 28:8-10

The resurrection is the Big Bang of spirituality. Some people fervently believe that Jesus physically rose from the dead. They take the story at face value. Some people think the whole story is a foolish legend that has caused more problems than it is worth. Whatever people believe about it, those beliefs drive their behaviors. We all live in the shadow of this story.

There was no hesitation or doubt in the reaction of the women. They didn’t sit around and argue with one another about what they ought to do. The angel said “Go, tell” and they did. They ran. With fear. With great joy.

As they ran, Jesus showed up for them.

Jesus showed up and caught them in the act of being obedient. They carried the message and, in that, they met Jesus.

There is a great temptation in all of us to turn the Christian faith into a “head game.” To reduce the Christian faith to a world limited to the thoughts between our ears. Doctrines and articles of faith and theological principles. Don’t get me wrong, I believe all of that matters. All of those words have arisen from human experience. They allow the continuing conversation that is part of the Christian experience and witness to the world.

But Jesus did not die and rise from the dead so that people could someday write theology. He did it to seal the transformation that Mary Magdalene saw in her own life. He did it so that people would be willing to carry the message to others – to turn and run rather than turning away and retreating. He did it so that his disciples would know that he would always be with them. Even if it took going back home to Galilee to realize it.

We all live in the shadow of the resurrection. Our lives, the choices we make, the ways we treat other people, who we see when we look in the mirror – all of that is a reflection of the impact of the resurrection in our lives. Mostly likely, some of us still react with fear and great joy.

Let us pray: As the women ran from the empty tomb, so inspire us to carry your message in our own lives. With our bodies and our words, may our lives be reflections of our love of God and neighbor, of serving before being served, of hospitality to the stranger, and of justice for all. May we always carry you home until that day when you carry us home. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. And suddenly there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men.

But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.’ This is my message for you.” Matthew 28:1-7

EMPTY! He wasn’t there. Now THIS is something new.

John T. has been reading these devotions for many years. The other day he sent me a message about watching Nadia Bolz-Weber preaching at the funeral of Rachel Held Evans. The best advice you can get always comes from the people you trust the most so I clicked on the link and watched it. She preached a masterful sermon. The line that comes to mind this morning was something like “when the disciples looked into the tomb they saw dirty laundry, the women saw angels.”

Pastor Bolz-Weber also was very clear – Mary Magdalene wasn’t the first witness to Jesus’ resurrection DESPITE her having once been a troubled person but BECAUSE of who she had been. Jesus was a transformational force in her life. What else would she, could she, do but hold on to his body for as long as she could. And that is about all I want to say about the resurrection this morning.

The guards greeted the resurrection with frozen fear. Frozen with fear! They shook and became like dead men.

That is what the resurrection will do to anyone clinging to their earthly lives and their earthly power. The resurrection will strike fear into the hearts of the powerful because it exposes their power for what it is. Temporary. Hollow. Human.

But for those who have seen their lives transformed by the love of God? Those who have come to trust that God will always be the God of the second chance? Those who taste the pain of the despised class, of grief, of sorrow, of shame? Where could they go but to the Lord?

The angel sent the women to carry the story back to the guys. They were supposed to tell them that Jesus would see them back home. From that moment on, this is how the Christian faith has worked. We trust the witness of others. We discover God, if we are to discover God at all, at home. Where we live. In our regular, daily, lives. And in that, God will either be a transformational force leading to healing, compassion, love, and justice – or we will freeze in fear of what we might lose.

Let us pray: Gracious Lord, the cross couldn’t stop you, the grave couldn’t hold you. You swallowed up death and took your wounds to eternity. You have caught us up into this story. You have caught us up in your love. May we, like Mary, carry your story to others, and may we discover you anew in our real life lives. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

The next day, that is, after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate and said, “Sir, we remember what that impostor said while he was still alive, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ Therefore command the tomb to be made secure until the third day; otherwise his disciples may go and steal him away, and tell the people, ‘He has been raised from the dead,’ and the last deception would be worse than the first.”

Pilate said to them, “You have a guard of soldiers; go, make it as secure as you can.” So they went with the guard and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone. Matthew 27:62-66

Put yourself into the shoes of the chief priests and the Pharisees. Imagine their mindsets as Jesus was led away to the cross, as he suffered and died. They did it! They got rid of the rabble rousing troublemaker. The thorn in their side.

As far as I’m concerned, by the way, this has absolutely nothing to do with their being Jewish! This wasn’t at all about differences in interpretation of their faith and their sense of what God was up to through God’s laws. Jesus didn’t invent “love the Lord your God and love your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus wasn’t the first to call people to treat strangers with hospitality and inclusion. Jesus wasn’t the first to recognize that God could be up to good through people who played on a different religious team.

It wasn’t about being “Jewish” that drove the chief priests and Pharisees to do what they did to Jesus – it was only about their being chief priests and Pharisees! It was about their personal power, prestige, and positions. It was about protecting their place. So they used their power to rid themselves of a truth-speaker who wasn’t afraid to say that the emperor has no clothes.

So yes, maybe they felt relieved. Maybe they felt the exhilaration of winning. But they also knew, at some place in their hearts, that they had done something horribly out of character of their faith. And, because of that, they felt fear.

What do powerful people do when they feel fear! They use their power to protect themselves. When all that matters is power and getting your way you are willing to do and say anything to keep that power and get your way. What do you do if you don’t like reality? Make up a story. If anyone else tells a different story, call their story “fake news.” Gaslight everyone around you. Deny. Deny. Deny.

You don’t like the message? Attack the messenger! Attack! Attack! Attack! The best defense is a good offense – so get as offensive, as outlandish, as crude and rude and vile as possible.

The “bad guys” in the Jesus story weren’t the first to do such things, nor would they be the last. We’ll all capable of such self-justification. This is the natural result of the unnatural effects of sin. So is our attempts to cover our tracks, to hide the evidence. Of course they called for Jesus’ tomb to be sealed and well-guarded. We’ll see next week how that worked out for them.

Let us pray: Lord, you have given us your story. You have entrusted to us the good news that evil could not win the ultimate battle, that death could not hold you, and that love cannot be locked away. May we tell your story, not only with our words, but with our lives. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Many women were also there, looking on from a distance; they had followed Jesus from Galilee and had provided for him. Among them were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.

When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who was also a disciple of Jesus. He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus; then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. So Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn in the rock. He then rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb and went away. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the tomb.  Matthew 27:55-61

There are several things in this passage that we do well to notice. Every time we read this. Because they fly in the face of commonly held myths and preconceptions.

Peter denied knowing Jesus. Judas betrayed him. The other disciples presumably scattered with the wind. But many women stuck with Jesus until the end. They followed Jesus throughout his ministry. They supported him. They provided for him. They stayed with his body even after he breathed his last. Two followed his body all the way to the tomb.

Women have never been the supporting cast in the Christian movement. From the very beginning, against the winds of culture, they have been full-fledged active participants and leaders. There would be no Christian movement without women. And Jesus – not to mention the writers of the gospels and, before them, the Apostle Paul – went out of his way to recognize women. Only later, as the church gained power and prestige in the empire, were women relegated to secondary status. But they have always been critical to Christian mission. Even if it took (speaking for my denomination) until 1970 to acknowledge that and begin ordaining women as pastors.

Second, our bank accounts are not measurements of our spiritual condition. Matthew tells us that Joseph of Arimathea was both a wealthy person and a follower of Jesus. Imagine the courage – and the connections – it took to approach Pilate and ask for the body of Jesus. That wasn’t how things were done. Normally the bodies of the crucified would hang in place until the cross was needed again. But Joseph took it upon himself to spare Jesus that indignity.

Not only that, Joseph generously allowed Jesus to be placed into the very tomb that Joseph had prepared (and paid for) for himself. It has never been about what a person has, has always been about what a person does with what they have. The Christian movement never would have flourished, nor would it flourish today, without the generosity of people of means using their wealth to support Christian mission. Jesus wasn’t just for “poor people” – he was for poor people too.

And finally, I make up in my mind that Pilate knew he had done wrong. He knew he had presided over a miscarriage of justice. But he was a politician first and, in the cost/benefit analysis of protecting Jesus or protecting his own position, Pilate took the easy (for him) way out. But then he gave the body of Jesus to Joseph to care for, even though he might be criticized for such leniency. Even politicians sometimes get it right.

Now Jesus’ body takes up its place in Joseph’s tomb. And the women, yes, the women, take up their vigil.

Let us pray: Dear Lord, in every age, people of courage and faith have stood up for you, stood even in the face of opposition and rejection. As the women and Joseph cared for your body, may we care for your body today. Even when it is costly. Even when it is scary. In Jesus’ name. Amen.