We’ve just wrapped up a series going through the book of Mark, ending on Easter with Mark’s rather abrupt finale. We’ll now pick up the story as told in the gospel of Luke.
One thing to note is that the two accounts of the resurrection have some differences. In fact, all four of the gospel accounts of the resurrection have differences – which women went to the tomb, what angels were there, where was the stone, things like that. It’s important to understand that there is one true gospel story and four different accounts of it. Each author noted different things and considered different things important for them to include or highlight. It’s left to us as a puzzle to put together.
That mirrors the confusion that we see in the story itself. The women are perplexed, Peter is wondering or marveling. That wonder, that confusion, that questioning is the first step towards understanding. This is why children ask so many questions – so let us come as little children, wondering and marveling even, maybe especially, when we are confused by events or what God has to say.
Asking these questions puts us in a position of humility, which is one of the reasons it can be hard for us to do as adults. Even Jesus, when taking the ultimate posture of humility on the cross, asked His Father “why?”
Sitting in wonder and questioning together can be a holy thing. When we want to put out simple answers instead of living in the question, it can lead us to race ahead to wrong and even harmful conclusions. Life is not a race to get to the right answer first.
While there is value in answers, in truth, knowledge and understanding, but there is also value in the process in that direction.
Back to the story – the women were perplexed. Paul used the same Greek word in his second letter to the church in Corinth:
But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.
2 Corinthians 4:8-10
The word “perplexed” in both places is aporeō, and the contrasting word “despair” is exaporeō. So while we can live in confusion, questioning and wonder, if we keep ourselves focused on the person of Jesus, we can avoid despair. The women and disciples were confused, but they were looking for Jesus – and Jesus eventually found them.
Are you in a place where you don’t have answers? Are there those around you? Don’t race ahead to find pat answers, and don’t veer off course to despair. Instead, be ready to live in the questions while seeking the ultimate Answer to all our questions.
–Sermon Notes, Alison Robison, Renew Church, Lynnwood WA, April 6, 2024