She is there
Josephine Magdalene Mathias Kellermeyer was a witness to the resurrection.
Although you will not find her name in the resurrection narratives, she is there.
She lived her life in the hope of resurrection and now abides for all eternity in Christ’s promise of resurrection joy!
Josephine was my grandmother and my favourite Christian.
We all called her “Mommy Jo”. Mommy Jo’s spirit is alive and well in generations of my family as we gather in worship across the nation this Easter.
Throughout her lifetime, Josephine believed, taught and lived the faith. I believe that if she had been at the empty tomb, Mark would not have written those words about the women’s testimony that appears in today’s focus scripture: “They said nothing to anyone because they were afraid” (16:8).
Josephine was not a fearful woman, for that matter, neither were the women witnesses to Christ’s resurrection.
What was Mark thinking? They obviously witnessed a lot of things to many people or there would be no faith and we would not be singing, “Christ the Lord is risen today!.”
When the women went to the tomb to anoint a dead body, they were blown away by a risen Saviour!
It had to be scary to see Jesus standing tall, having watched him hanging high on the cross a few days before.
It was frightening, but it was not silencing.
For two thousand years “the faith of our mothers living still” has brought practicality, sensibility, sensitivity, and a “lived” theology to our Christian witness.
Without the Mommy Jo’s of Christian history, many of us – like the disciples – would still be hiding, waiting for the doors to blow open and the risen Christ to walk in.
Others of us would never have heard of Jesus and we would remain blithely ignorant of the incarnate, risen, word of God.
The last time I saw my grandmother alive was three weeks before Easter in 1994.
As my wife and I prepared to leave her bedside, she told us, “I will not be here by Easter”.
Following Easter services, I was sitting at home when my mother called to say Mommy Jo had died just before sunset.
I turned to my wife and said, “She did not live to see another Easter. She is risen and alive forevermore.”
Be not afraid. Rather, be bold witnesses to the resurrection. The risen Christ is loose in the world and needs us to be fearless in spreading good news and turning the world upside down!
The journey does not end at a tomb, not then, not now.
Our journey continues from the cross and the tomb to Easter day, when we lift our hands to shield our eyes from a sight too good to be true, but true nonetheless:
The resurrection of our Lord. Thanks be to God!