Feel Free to Pass on “And going out, they fled from the tomb for trembling and astonishment had seized them and they said nothing to anyone for they were afraid.” (Mark 16:8)
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he women thought Jesus was dead. They had come to prepare His dead body for burial because in their universe dead people generally stayed dead. But Jesus wasn’t at the tomb when they got there. Instead, a young man dressed in a white robe told them, “He has risen from the dead. He isn’t here. See the place where they laid Him! Go and tell His disciples and Peter that He is going before you to Galilee. You’ll see Him there just as He told you!” Laid Him. Past tense. Not there anymore—not dead.
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If you believed that Jesus was still dead after that then, trembling and afraid like them, you would say nothing about your faith to anyone. There would be only fear, death, and pain in this world for you. Sick people would die and then they would stay dead. Hurting people would have no hope. There would be nothing to look forward to in the future. No good news from God either— not even anything worth peeking at your phone to read. But, if the One who was crucified for your sins has really been raised from the dead, then everything in your universe has changed. God cares for His creation, and cares for you. He, Himself, has personally answered for your sins. Salvation has come to all the world in Christ. Life isn’t short like the world says! It goes on to eternity. Jesus has been raised from the dead! There is no end of good news that you have to tell the world around you! This Gospel is the evangelion (εὐαγγέλιον), the Good news, that saves! Lutherans have always been about the preaching of this Good News! In the Reformation, we were even called “evangelicals!” For when the Gospel came clear to Luther, when it broke through the darkness again, the Lutheran churches couldn’t help but spread that good news all around Germany! This is why you made promises at your confirmation to be faithful to the “evangelical” Lutheran church. Lutherans were the first evangelicals! We are the church of the Good News of Jesus!
