Let’s Go to Galilee　

Easter Sunday, April 1, 2018


Mark 16:1-8
When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body. 2 Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb 3 and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?”
4 But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. 5 As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.
6 “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. 7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’”
8 Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.

Hallelujah! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Hallelujah!

When the three women entered the tomb, a young man, an angel, was sitting there with a message from God.

6 “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. 7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’”

Galilee is the name of the area about 80 miles north of Jerusalem. There is a big lake there by the same name. The hometown of Jesus, Nazareth was there and it was the home of Peter and the other fishermen, and the three women were probably from there, too.

The angel said that this is where Jesus will meet with the disciples. He will meet them at their home, where it will be safe for them. This meeting is recorded in John Chapter 21 when at the Sea of Galilee he told Peter “Feed my sheep.”

St. Mark wrote this Gospel Book so that we might meet Jesus. We know that Jesus rose from the dead. We know that the tomb is empty. In our hearts we want to meet our Lord and Savior. And so the words of the angel speak to us, too. “He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.” So where is our Galilee? Where is our home? That is where Jesus will meet us.

Jesus meets us in Word and Sacrament. He meets us in the love and prayers and witness of his modern-day disciples. He meets us where we are. The message of the Bible is that God comes to us, not that we go to him. And so God came to Abraham, Moses, Elijah, John the Baptist, the Disciples, to Paul and others.

God has to come to us where we are because we people are always looking for God in all the wrong places. I have no time this morning to list all the places we search which are as empty as the tomb of Jesus. Or, because Jesus is not there, those places become tombs that lead to death. That is the hopelessness and gloom and doom when there is no angel to direct us to Jesus.

That is why Easter Sunday is so wonderful for us. We hear the Good News Message that Jesus comes to us. We are in this Galilee named Okinawa. Here we meet our Lord. And he gives us peace, love, joy, forgiveness, and eternal life.

Amen.

Hallelujah! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Hallelujah!

Michael Nearhood, Pastor
Okinawa Lutheran Church


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