Mark 16:8-10: Servant Alleluia
Easter Sunday, April 20, 2025
This Holy Week we have spent time meditating on the role of the faithful servant, awaiting the promise we heard millennia ago. Today we celebrate with a great alleluia, the miracle of the faithful servant’s union with God through Christ. We re-commit to living the Passion story individually and collectively as we experience promise, betrayal, hope, destruction, restoration, transformation, and salvation. This morning we welcome the good news the angel brings us from the empty tomb. We listen to Eric Whitaker’s Alleluia, consider the images of angels and women, and meditate on the verses from The Complete Jewish Bible. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BhKPQY15uk
Then Miryam of Magdala, Miryam the mother of Ya‘akov, and Shlomit looked up and saw that the stone, even though it was huge, had been rolled back already. On entering the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right; and they were dumbfounded. But he said, “Don’t be so surprised! You’re looking for Yeshua from Natzeret, who was executed on the stake. He has risen, he’s not here! Look at the place where they laid him. But go and tell his talmidim, especially Kefa, that he is going to the Galil ahead of you. You will see him there, just as he told you.” Trembling but ecstatic they went out and fled from the tomb, and they said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.
Tomorrow, still we doubt.
When we use the scripture link and drop-down menus to compare this translation to other versions, we too enter into the great alleluia of praise that all of creation offers to God.
For the story of women arriving at the empty tomb from other Gospels, follow these links. Matthew 28:5-8, Luke 24:1-8, John 20:1
Images from: https://orthodoxmonasteryicons.com/products/the-white-angel-of-the-tomb-icon and https://www.wikiart.org/en/henry-ossawa-tanner/the-three-marys-1910
Music from the University of Wisconsin: Eau Claire Milwaukee Art Museum, 2014 Dr. Gary R. Schwartzhoff, conductor. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BhKPQY15uk
The Noontimes 