4 ^th Resurrection Gospel

(Luke 24:1-12)

Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them.  And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre.  And they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus.  And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments: And as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, why seek ye the living among the dead?  He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee, saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.  And they remembered his words, and returned from the sepulchre, and told all these things unto the eleven, and to all the rest.  It was Mary Magdalene and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and other women that were with them, which told these things unto the apostles.  And their words seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not.  Then arose Peter, and ran unto the sepulchre; and stooping down, he beheld the linen clothes laid by themselves, and departed, wondering in himself at that which was come to pass.

It is not the Apostles preaching to the world, but rather it is the women preaching to the Apostles!  The Lord is impartial; it is not one’s title but his faithfulness that leads into the Kingdom of God.  At the sight of Jesus’ Body laid in Joseph of Arimathaea’s tomb, the Apostles’ hearts were petrified by grief.  They failed to accept what their Teacher had taught them “while yet in Galilee.”

The Apostles were frightened by everything that had happened.  They were at a loss as to what they should do next…  It was as if they forgot that beyond the walls of Jerusalem, there was a place called Golgotha, and nearby, a garden with a little cave-tomb in which their Teacher lay.

Perhaps they would have gone to the tomb during the day.  The world knows only that they were not waiting for midnight to pass, they were not waiting for the end of their Sabbath rest; when that rest ended, they did not go, bearing vessels full of sweet spices to the Jerusalem gates, to the Mount of Olives that faced those gates. 

The Myrrh-bearing Women did that in their stead, and in their stead they were the first to receive the news of Christ’s Resurrection.  The Lord grants His love not in recompense for the worthiness of service, but for worthiness in love.

In the Old Testament, it was only the high priest who could enter the Holy of Holies, and that only once a year.  In the New Testament, the greatest Holy of Holies, Christ, is accessible to everyone, everywhere, and at all times.  Entry to God is not in the worthiness of one’s profession, but of one’s heart.  The heart is the gateway to God.  The Lord expressively demonstrates that by [the fact that] the Thief was the first to enter into Paradise, and the humble women were the first to proclaim the Good News to the Evangelists themselves. 

The Kingdom of God is for the faithful, and in it the most exalted will not be the most exalted on earth, but in Heaven.  The Kingdom of God is within you.  The Joy of the Resurrection brings with it many other joys to Christians.  The first and foremost joy accompanying the Resurrection is the joy of God’s universal instruction that all people are equally the image of God, and that each person is capable of being most faithful to Christ.

Archbishop John (Shakhovskoy)