By Brandon Brown
He is risen! That was the exclamation of Mary of Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of Jesus, and other unnamed women. They were the first witnesses to the resurrection and thus the first to preach the Gospel. This was one more example of how Jesus was turning the conventional ideas and culture upon their head. The marginalized carry the message of resurrection. Luke tells us how marginalized women were as the eleven consider the message of the women to be an "idle tale." (Luke 24:11) Into the fear, uncertainty, and terror of the preceding days, the faithful women brought the hope of resurrection. The truth of the work of the cross and its foolishness was revealed by those seen as foolish; even by their friends.
John does not mention that he and the other men thought the initial message of resurrection to be an idle tale; instead, he mentions it is Jesus himself who calls Mary to preach his resurrection to the disciples. John lived into the message of Jesus such that when his witness of the Gospel is written down, he knows the change in the position of the marginalized.
The truth of the cross, as revealed in the Gospel, is that it "is not what God inflicts upon Jesus in order to forgive; the crucifixion is what God endures in Christ as he forgives." (Brian Zahnd) This is important for us to understand as the recipients of forgiveness. We are not recipients of forgiveness given by an angry God who demanded the death of Jesus, but a loving God willingly allowing humanity to kill Godself in order to be reconciled. In fact, the violence of the cross is to be seen in the work of what that violence does. As Fleming Rutledge writes, "Insofar as the outworking of Christ’s crucifixion is 'violent,'' it is the necessary violence of the overthrow of the world (kosmos) in which Sin and Death are hell-bent on maintaining their sovereignty." The "wrath" of God is aimed not at humanity, but at Sin and Death which enslave humanity and place a barrier to relationship with God. This is why the Gospel is such good news!
He is risen!