Easter Vigil 2024
What a remarkable Gospel we have tonight. Did you notice how it ended? “And the women came out and ran away from the tomb, because they were frightened out of their wits; and they said nothing to a soul, for they were afraid.”
That is how St. Mark’s Gospel originally ended: the remaining twelve verses, telling of the appearances of the risen Christ, His commission to the disciples, and His Ascension, are generally believed to have been added later.
Contrast that with Matthew’s account: “Filled with awe and great joy, the women came quickly away from the tomb, and ran to tell the disciples”. Which version do you imagine is the more accurate?
Well, when studying classical languages in Sixth Form and at university, we were given a dictum to be applied, not universally, but generally: “Difficilior lectio melior”—“the more difficult reading is the better one”. In other words, a difficult reading is more likely to have been altered to make it easier than the other way round.
Can we suppose then that Mark’s terrified women are more original than Matthew’s joyful women? It makes sense. Arriving in semi-darkness to find an empty tomb and a strange young man—a scene which turned upside down all their expectations—wouldn’t you expect them to be terrified? Joy would come eventually when the denarius dropped, but aren’t mystical experiences which confound our suppositions likely to be frightening rather than re-assuring?
To encounter God is alarming, because He turns our world upside down. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” the scriptures tell us. If we are not, to an extent, afraid of, in awe of, God then we do not truly know Him: we know rather a god of our own construction. When they hear that the Lord is risen, these women suddenly discover that their previous understanding of Jesus, and of God, has been woefully inadequate, and in the disturbing of their comfort they can begin to know the true Jesus, the true God.
As we rejoice tonight in the resurrection of Jesus the Christ, let us realise that, however well we believe that we know Him, our knowledge, this side of the grave, will always be inadequate; and if there isn’t an element of fear, then our understanding is probably still superficial. He is risen, a cause for joy, but also for deep reverence and a healthy dose of holy fear.
