A few years back, I saw a movie whose hapless young hero tried to reassure an outraged customer by telling her, “We have a saying here: Everything will be all right in the end, so if it is not all right, it is not yet the end.”
I thought that was a clever line when I first heard it and it’s also a theological statement about Christian hope.
Mary Magdalene followed Jesus, helping wherever she could, taking in everything he said and did, supporting his work out of her own pocket, encouraging other women to do the same, living in joyful hope.
When things went wrong, Mary Magdalene stuck with him. She stood at the foot of the cross; she even stayed to witness his burial. Yes, Mary Magdalene stuck with Jesus to the end, the bitterly disappointing end.
But it wasn’t the end. When Mary Magdalene went back to Jesus’ tomb early on that Sunday morning, she discovered to her joy that the story was not over. And that changed everything. Christ’s resurrection is the source of our Christian hope.
This message is excerpted from “What is the source of Christian hope?” by Audrey Novak Riley from the April 1, 2017, blog of the Women of the ELCA. Today is Holy Saturday.
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