Mary & Mary can't get away from the tomb fast enough! Maybe some of us still can't get away from the Easter Event fast enough because it's too hard? M & M leave in a mixture of awe, fear, & the like, at what they've seen, & at least a glimmer of great joy, based on what they've been told.

But they ain't seen nothin yet! Not Jesus raised from death. At this stage they're just racing off to tell the other disciples something they've been told. Hearsay. Not admissible in court. The sort of thing at the root of a lot of poor religion. Then Jesus greets them. "G'day" he says. As if nothing much has happened since they were together last. Master of understatement. M & M can't hide their emotion. They do obeisance. Then he tells them not to be afraid. Fear of various kinds blocks more progress on our faith journey than just about anything else! Reassured, they go off to get on with the telling the other disciples bit. Which brings us to the un(re)solved question of where other resurrection appearances happen. (If MK is the basic document, 14:28 is relevant.)

That the raised Christ entrusts his message to the womenfolk who've already proved themselves more reliable than his male disciples during his lifetime is a rebuke to patriarchal attitudes. It's OK for the women to 'do obeisance', but why are some still so reluctant to trust them as far as Jesus does? Let them go off to tell their message, play the leadership role he always recognized in them?

MIM doesn't have the intellect to sort out where the appearances happened, but for faith, that Jesus does appear at all carries more weight than conflicting evidence over where what happens. Has he appeared to us in some meaningful way? Can we pinpoint when & where? Was it really at point A & not B? Have we stopped being afraid? Do we believe? Are we free enough to pass on the news? Are we responsible enough?

Some scholars say the whole thing's a beat up to lay the groundwork for a whopping big Christian fib in the offing in the next verses. But what MT tells us sounds persuasive. If the fib bit's true, then Christian leaders of that day are as dodgy a lot as they allege their Jewish counterparts to be. Even  dodgier than many of their successors have proved to be.

Those who poo poo the plot hatched by guards, priests, & elders as an early attack on Jews by Christians in the propaganda war, in which case Jewish brothers & sisters then & now may rightly be affronted, may be right. But the real question is not about affront, but about truth. 'What is truth?' as a certain person once asked when Truth was staring him in the face (JN 18:38). That there was a plot along the lines MT claims stands up better than most alternatives. It sounds very human. It makes sense. That v.15b is usually edited from our lectionaries is more a sign of our  succeptibilities, than those of Jewish people today. If it is just one more Christian slander, so what's new?!

Differing accounts of where Jesus appeared look very much like plays in the game of getting the edge over an opposing faction within the emerging church. Gaining control. A strategy that doesn't appear in any of the creeds, but at which practice has made church(es) perfect. You know how people sometimes ask things like, "If you could ask Jesus one question, what would it be?" If I were game, I think I'd like to ask, "Was it all worth it?" Yet God persists with us. In dogged love. Hoping against hope. Still appearing where we need him to.

Afterthought: If we can't preach Jesus raised & alive among us more meaningfully than often passes for an 'Easter Message', have we joined forces with those priests of old MT says hatched a lie?