When you think back over your favorite books, do you remember the endings? The writer keeps our attention if the story leads to a satisfying conclusion, even if the plot twists and turns. When we commit to a book, we put a lot of faith in the author to tell a good story and to wrap up their tale in a way that makes sense. When the ending is unclear or unbelievable, we wish we hadn’t invested so much time in their book.
    When Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome brought spices to Jesus’ tomb, they thought they knew the ending of his story. Jesus’ death on the cross brought his ministry to an abrupt conclusion. Nothing was left to do but show their devotion by anointing him with spices. How surprised the women must have been to hear that Jesus’ story hadn’t ended after all! He had been raised. He was going ahead of his followers to Galilee. They would see him again!
    To us, this story of Jesus’ resurrection is familiar, so we hear it as good news. For the women, though, it was terrifying. This wasn’t how they expected Jesus’ story to turn out. They had seen him die on the cross, and now they were being told he was alive? They didn’t know what to make of this twist in Jesus’ story. They were so afraid that they fled.
    The women ran away because they were shocked when the story didn’t turn out as expected. But soon, they would learn this was a happy ending: Where they had seen death, God made a way for new life! What seemed like the conclusion was actually a beginning. It was the dawn of a new day, a resurrection day. As Christians, we don’t know the future or how our stories will end, but we can trust that Jesus is alive. He goes ahead of us, leading us into a future full of God’s love and grace.

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