GO, TELL HIS DISCIPLES AND PETER that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you. (Mark 16.7)

“Do not be alarmed”, said the “young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side”, but Mark says that Mary Magdalene and the other Mary “fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid”.

I don’t wonder. Would any of us have been less than afraid? Could any of us justly chastise the disciples Mary eventually spoke to for their lack of belief? It’s a tough ask to believe the impossible. Yet Mark presents the Risen Jesus upbraiding them for their “unbelief and hardness of heart”.

We must be infinitely thankful that we know the rest of the story. We’ve had time to cogitate and to reflect upon what the young man meant when he said that “he” was headed off up to Galilee – to the workplace where so much of ‘the action’ really got into its stride, and from whence all future ‘action’ will flow. The ordinary, the everyday, fishing, tax collecting, schooling, learning, working, loving, making mistakes, praying, longing, hungering for justice, righteousness and peace – all of this, taking shape in human form in the Galilee is where we’ll find that Christ has gone before, where we’ll recognise that He and we are one and the same. Risen. Living and working in and for a Happy Easter.