God’s Word for You
Mark 16:7 To Galilee
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Friday, April 5, 2024
7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.”
The second half of the angels’ message continues to proclaim the gospel. The women are urged to go give the news to the eleven disciples, and especially to Peter, who had denied his Savior. The mention of Peter by name was not to shame him further, but to lift him up and to encourage him: Your sin of denying the Lord also received atonement on the cross!
The angel also repeats something Jesus had said. We see in hindsight that Jesus was thinking of this moment at the tomb the week before, since on Thursday evening, the night he was betrayed, Jesus said as they were about to make their way to Gethsemane, “After I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee” (Mark 14:28). It was in response to this that Peter insisted he would not fall away or betray Jesus! Now the words of Jesus are repeated by the angel: “He is going ahead of you into Galilee.”
In his grief, Peter was surely kicking himself, reliving his rash words over and over again, wondering how he could ever have sinned so terribly! That’s the way it is with all of us. We wonder how we could sin, but if we examine ourselves, we will wonder how it is that God loves us at all, since we are so obviously incapable of anything but sin and more sin. The wound of sin is incurable; our injury is beyond healing, humanly speaking (Jeremiah 30:12). But the grace of God in the gospel is beyond human reasoning, human logic, and beyond human understanding (Philippians 4:7). It is peace that comes without being deserved, without being earned, and without any merits in us. God loves us because God loves us. We cannot comprehend the why, but he lovingly assures us that this is what he does; this is how much he loves. The truth of John 3:16 and of God’s overarching love of the world to forgive the world is not just a happy verse for children’s ears. It is the incomprehensible compassion of God for mankind. It rises up above the sinner’s doubts and fears. It is a bell which, having been struck, does not stop ringing.
One of the great Lutheran composers was of course J.S. Bach. In his “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring,” there is a marvelous pattern to the melody, in which evenly spaced notes (without syncopation) ascend and briefly descend in a mental image of lifting, touching, and carrying what is below to what is above. Each line of the piece is a musical picture of the gospel of the forgiveness of our sins. Christ reaches down and brings up. He stoops to touch this sinner and lifts him up, and then he stoops to touch that sinner there and lifts her up, again and again. And then, over all, a soaring descant rises to remind the listener that this was God’s plan all along. Bach’s confidence in the forgiveness of Christ, the atonement of the cross and the glory of the empty tomb is what confuses music critics who try to call his work mathematical when in fact it is simply theological. It is stained glass set to music; it is the spoken gospel repeated as a lovely echo without words.
Reach down, Lord Jesus, and touch this sinner’s cheek. Wipe away the tears of grief and shame, extend your finger to lift the sinner’s chin, and bid me with your tender voice to look into your loving eyes and see the forgiveness that is there. Rise up, grieving man, and breathe deeply of the Spirit’s breath. Ease your heaving chest and quiet your sobbing, for Christ has come to heal.
When John the Baptist’s disciples doubted, Jesus said, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, and the dead are raised. The good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is the one who does not fall away on account of me” (Matthew 11:4-6). The good news is preached to the poor, and no man is so poor as when he is crushed by his sin, for no treasure on earth can buy his forgiveness. But the gospel of Christ crucified for us is the priceless treasure that he gives so freely; he gives and he gives and he gives. Do not refuse him.
“Into Galilee! There you will see him, just as he told you!” The angel’s words hang in the air like the call of a songbird. The message is so ordinary that its full impact takes time to set in. He is going into Galilee! A dead man cannot travel wherever he wants to go. This, too, is the proclamation of the gospel. And more than that, they will see him there. And this message is not only for the eleven disciples, but of course for these very women, as well. Go and you will see him. He told you this ahead of time.
This, too, is the gospel. For our God is the God who keeps his word; who keeps all his promises. He said that they would see him, and so they will. Come, Lord Jesus.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.