The Two Marys

In today's Gospel reading, Matthew shows us what is going on behind the scenes.

Jesus met Mary Magdalene and the other Mary and said, "Greetings!" And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me." While they were going, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests everything that had happened. After the priests had assembled with the elders, they devised a plan to give a large sum of money to the soldiers, telling them, "You must say, `His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.' If this comes to the governor's ears, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble." So they took the money and did as they were directed. And this story is still told among the Jews to this day. - Matthew 28:9-15

The meeting between Jesus and the two Marys would have been shared with the brothers, just as Jesus said, but how did Matthew know about the guards and the chief priests?

Who could have told him?

Matthew assumes an omniscient narrator role here in telling this story.  He sees and knows all and doesn't need to have been present in any of the scenes.

When John writes his Gospel, he places himself in the picture, speaking as though he was and is both the apostle and evangelist John.

For most of us who love the story and hold it dear, especially those encounters with the risen Jesus, the way the story is written is not an issue.

But to those who are skeptics and disbelievers, the way the story is written can be a problem.  

It can be more of an issue today, with so much visible in real time thanks to the cameras in our phones and tablets.  We can be witnesses to anything at any time.

But even there, we have become skeptics, thanks to fakes and AI.

Truth is becoming harder to see and we are losing trust in almost everything.

As it turns out, though, this is the time we need these stories most.

The two Mary's are us.

They are us when we choose to believe without truly knowing, and then they are us when we face the truth and have to pinch ourselves to assure ourselves that we are not dreaming.

Their story will not be believed at first, even though Jesus told his friends what was going to happen.

We are also the two Marys when we try to talk about Jesus to someone who is skeptical.

How can we convince them of what we know t o be true, when what we know to be true is so unbelievable?

This is the challenge facing us Christians.

But for some, because the story is so unbelievable, it has to be true.

Jesus represents the opposite of what the Jewish world expected.  And the Roman world had seen many false prophets and revolutionaries, so many, they could easily toss this one aside like all the others.

And then we have Mohammed who came along and said the Christians got it all wrong, replacing one unbelievable story with another.

So, here we are, like the two Marys, knowing what we know and also knowing no one will believe us.

More to come...