Guided reflection:

Aren’t you excited to get to this passage? This is it! This is what sets us apart from any other religion… we believe in a RISEN SAVIOR!!!! Not just a nice teacher… not just a story of a hero… but a risen Savior… whose life, death, and resurrection had YOU at its center! Mark tells the details: Mary Magdalene had just had the worst night of her life and now she had to do that one thing she never dreamed possible… and they took his body! Can’t they just leave well enough alone? She asks the gardener where they have laid his body… and she gets the surprise of her life! IT IS JESUS! HE IS ALIVE!!!! Why is it we seek the living among the dead? Notice that Jesus immediately asks them two things – to not be afraid… and to go and tell the others. Again, try to put yourself into the story… feel the loss and then the hope and then the thrill… and wonder of it all!

Guided prayer:

“O God, I love this part of the Story! It is such an emotional rollercoaster to go from being smug about being part of the “in crowd”… to being horrified that Jesus is actually dying as a criminal… to the horror of the details… to the despair of the dark night… to the glory of the new morning that brought resurrection. For ME, yet! I know that my life is made up of all those emotions and experiences, but thank you for the hope of the resurrection that means I need not even fear death! That this is not the end of the story – there is hope even beyond the grave! WOW! Thank you! Amen!