Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature

 Now when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome brought spices, that they might come and anoint Him.  Very early in the morning, on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen.  And they said among themselves, "Who will roll away the stone from the door of the tomb for us?"  But when they looked up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away -- for it was very large.  And entering the tomb, they saw a young man clothed in a long white robe sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed.    But he said to them, "Do not be alarmed.  You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified.  He is risen!  He is not here.  See the place where they laid Him.  But go, tell His disciples -- and Peter -- that He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him, as He said to you."  So they went out quickly and fled from the tomb, for they trembled and were amazed.  And they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

Now when He rose early on the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven demons.  She went and told those who had been with Him, as they mourned and wept.  And when they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, they did not believe.  After that, He appeared in another form to two of them as they walked and went into the country.  And they went and told it to the rest, but they did not believe them either.

Later He appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table; and He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen.  And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.  He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.  And these signs will follow those who believe:  In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover."

So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God.  And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs.  Amen.

- Mark 16:1-8(9-20)

Yesterday we read that were also women looking on from afar, among whom were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the Less and of Joses, and Salome, who also followed Jesus and ministered to Him when He was in Galilee, and many other women who came up with Him to Jerusalem.  Now when evening had come, because it was the Preparation Day, that is, the day before the Sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent council member, who was himself waiting for the kingdom of God, coming and taking courage, went in to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.  Pilate marveled that He was already dead; and summoning the centurion, he asked him if He had been dead for some time.  So when he found out from the centurion, he granted the body to Joseph.  Then he bought fine linen, took Him down, and wrapped Him in the linen.  And he laid Him in a tomb which had been hewn out of the rock, and rolled a stone against the door of the tomb.  And Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses observed where He was laid.

Now when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome brought spices, that they might come and anoint Him.  Very early in the morning, on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen.  Historically, there are those who teach that Mary the mother of James was the wife of Alphaeus, and this James was one of the Twelve (Mark 6:15).  But most have held that this is the Virgin Mary, who is in fact the stepmother of another James, "the Lord's brother" (see Matthew 13:55; compare Mark 15:40, 47 from yesterday's reading).   Many teach that Salome was the wife of Zebedee, and the mother of apostles James and John.  Because Jesus' death came so close in time to the Sabbath, the burial customs of the Jews couldn't be completed.  So these women went as early as possible to complete the rites of burial, very early in the morning. 

And they said among themselves, "Who will roll away the stone from the door of the tomb for us?"  But when they looked up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away -- for it was very large.   Why should this very large stone be rolled away?   Christ needed no exit from His tomb; His resurrected body needs no such accommodation (John 20:19).  It's rolled away so that the witnesses -- and us readers of the Gospels -- can look in and see that the tomb is empty.

And entering the tomb, they saw a young man clothed in a long white robe sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed.    But he said to them, "Do not be alarmed.  You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified.  He is risen!  He is not here.  See the place where they laid Him.  But go, tell His disciples -- and Peter -- that He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him, as He said to you."  So they went out quickly and fled from the tomb, for they trembled and were amazed.  And they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.  We note the angel's specific mention of Peter.  It reveals, my study bible says, a special care for the one who had denied Christ.  According to the commentary of Theophylact, Peter would have said of himself, "I denied the Lord, and therefore am no longer His disciple."  But the angel's command is a promise that Peter is forgiven.  That the women said nothing to anyone doesn't mean they never told their story as witnesses.  But it does tell us that they kept silent until Jesus appeared to them.

Now when He rose early on the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven demons.  She went and told those who had been with Him, as they mourned and wept.  And when they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, they did not believe.  After that, He appeared in another form to two of them as they walked and went into the country.  And they went and told it to the rest, but they did not believe them either.  There are two early manuscripts of Mark's Gospel that do not contain verses 9-20 (from this section to the end of today's reading).  But nearly all other manuscripts ever discovered do contain these verses and those that follow.  They are canonized Scripture, and have always been considered by the Church to be inspired, authoritative, and genuine.  That Christ appeared in another form teaches us that the Lord's resurrected body transcends not just physical space and time but also appearance.  He was sometimes recognizable to His disciples, while at other times He was not.  

Later He appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table; and He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen.  And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.  He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.  And these signs will follow those who believe:  In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover."   Jesus gives them the Great Commission, His final commandment given on earth.  It is to be lived out in the Church until He returns again.  The power of the Resurrection isn't for Jesus Himself alone, my study bible says, but rather is given to all believers for Christian life and mission.  Of the signs He reveals, new tongues refers to the ability to speak in languages that one hasn't learned in order to edify others  in worship (1 Corinthians 14), and to preach the gospel (Acts 2:1-11).  To take up serpents is primarily a reference to spiritual battle against demons (Luke 10:19).  Therefore, Christ is promising to deliver believers from the power of sin, my study bible notes.  Furthermore, this includes physical protection as well.  St. Paul was bitten by a serpent and suffered no harm (Acts 28:3-6), and in accordance with tradition, Barsabas Justus (Acts 1:23) was forced by unbelievers to drink poison and survived.  But, a note tells us, while God's grace can protect believers from both physical and spiritual harm, to test God by deliberately committing harmful acts against oneself is a grave sin (Deuteronomy 6:16, Matthew 4:7). 

So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God.  And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs.  Amen.  The Ascension of Christ is celebrated forty days after the Resurrection (Acts 1:3).  Christ's Ascension fulfills the type given when Elijah ascended in a fiery chariot (2 Kings 2:11).  It marks the completion of His glorification and lordship over all creation.  (We note that in the Great Commission, in the verses just above, Christ tells the disciples to "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature."  In the Greek, that reads literally, "to all creation.")   My study bible reminds us that at the Incarnation, Christ brought His divine nature to human nature.  In the mystery of the Ascension, Christ brings human nature to the divine Kingdom.  He reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit in His glorified body, revealing His glorified human nature -- even human flesh -- to be worshiped by the whole angelic realm.  In some icons of the Ascension, Christ's robes have a red tint to indicate the shedding of His blood for the redemption of the world and the ascent of that life-giving blood into heaven (Isaiah 63:1-3; see also Psalm 24:7-10). 

Christ's Great Commission is the command:  "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature."   In the Greek, and in some English translations, this literally reads, "preach the gospel to all creation."  It might seem a little bit strange, to us who tend to think in a rather abstract way, how on earth the gospel could be preached to all creation.  That is, to those who weren't human beings.  Don't we have to have a human understanding, a soul, a heart, with which to grasp and wrestle with His teachings, and to seek to do them, to make those choices?  But my study bible hits on a significant point when it says that Christ's Ascension (which immediately follows His Great Commission) "marks the completion of His glorification and lordship over all creation."  The Great Commission is the sending out of His disciples to everywhere in His Kingdom and to all its subjects -- and the entirety of His lordship is precisely over all creation.  What that means is that the whole of the cosmos, of what we can see or know or live within or use for our lives -- every single bit of it -- is under the lordship of Christ.  It is all a part of His Kingdom, His dominion.  Therefore when we are taught how to be good stewards in His Kingdom, it's not only about a circumscribed and limited code for certain events or happenings in our lives.  It's about everything -- and it's about how we relate to each and every one, and everything in His creation.  Our "relationships" are not only to people, but rather to everything in creation:  how we see it, how we care for it, and especially how we understand it as His.  What belongs to Him should be precious to all of us.  There are many, many stories of saints living in the desert or elsewhere who could speak to and communicate love to animals.  St. Francis is especially known as one such saint, even preaching sermons to animals.  What these saintly stories teach us is about the love God wishes for us to cultivate in our hearts for all of God's creation, a kind of fullness that isn't measured but rather overflows.  It reminds us that in John's Gospel, Jesus teaches, "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water," indicating the overflowing abundance of the gift of the Holy Spirit, and what the Holy Spirit confers to us.  The fruits of the Spirit also are the subject here of Jesus' Great Commission, the signs of faith.  That overflowing abundance of mercy, of the energies of God given to us as gift and for bearing spiritual fruit, is reflected in the images of the saints for whom love was unlimited, not circumscribed, but belonging to all creation.  Jesus teaches us that everything matters, each little particular.  We can pray for someone we happen to pass on the street, someone we can't seem to speak to without creating problems, someone we don't know well.  We can pray for the birds that sing outside our window, for the pet across the street.  All of creation is to be the recipient of this ministry and of His Great Commission; there are no limits to discipleship, because there are no limits to His lordship.  St. Paul writes to the Corinthians that "God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty" (1 Corinthians 1:27).  It is all of creation that is included here in the preaching of the gospel.  Let us remember, as we go live our lives, His criterion for Judgment.  It's all about how we meet His Kingdom and all that's in it.  May our prayers rise like incense, as do the prayers of the saints (Revelation 8:4).