Come and See: Go and Tell

Luke 24:1-11; Matthew 28:6-7

With spices in hand the women came,
with spices in hand for their friend
who was killed.
With spices in hand and love in
their hearts
they came to do the last rites
by him they loved, one final time.
But they could not find him:
he is gone.

“Why do you seek
the living among the dead?”
Remember what he told you…
Come and see the place where he lay,
then go and tell his friends
that he has
risen from the dead.

O sisters of an ancient time,
trembling and perplexed and now
entrusted with such tremendous news,
how will you deliver your joy-filled word,
how will they receive it, those who hear,
those who usually give your word
no credence, dismissing it
as old wives’ tales, forbidding it
to stand up in court?

Yet, you were chosen, sisters, mothers,
who once walked by his side.
You were chosen to spread the news,
you were chosen to bear the flame,
you who loved him much were trusted
to tell others that he
is risen again.

They did not believe you, those others;
your words seemed to them but
an idle tale.
Were you surprised at all, or did you
take it realistically, and try again?
We’ll never know, will we?

News too good to be true,
news too startling to win belief,
carried by you
in whom he has believed.

On this joyful Easter morn
let us run with you,
let us fly with you to spread the word:
“He is not here: he is risen”
is news too great to hoard,
too precious to keep.

Yet
such news cannot be forced on others:
they must respond to it as they are able.
Your job – and ours – is but to do our share,
then let those words fall
on sandy or on fertile soil.

O God of life,
help us ever to recognize
new life when we see it in others.
Give us grace to believe witnesses
you choose, however unlikely they may seem,
however sceptically society takes them.
Let us too be witness for you,
however unworthy we may be,
so long as our experience is genuine,
and our message life-giving.
Alleluia evermore.
Amen

(from Tears and Hallelujahs: Lenten Readings and Prayers by Greer Anne Went-In Ng, United Church of Canada, 1988)

Come and See: Go and Tell