He is risen! Alleluja!

Today, on Easter Sunday, we heard one of my favourite Bible passages.
Mary Magdalen meets the resurrected Christ.
I love the tenderness and intimacy of this encounter.

But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet.
They said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping?’ She said to them, ‘They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.’ 

When she had said this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? For whom are you looking?’ Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, ‘Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.’

Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’ She turned and said to him in Hebrew, ‘Rabbouni!’ (which means Teacher).
Jesus said to her, ‘Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” ’ Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord’; and she told them that he had said these things to her."
(Luke 20:11-18)

The tomb is empty

On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen!"

(Luke 24:1-6)

Today I am trying to imagine how the women coming to the tomb (the gospels mention Mary Magdalen and Mary, mother of James, amongst others) would have felt on this morning.
There would have been no joy or anything to look forward to.
I imagine they were driven by a sense of duty to embalm Jesus' body - the only thing left, which they can do for him now.

Then the shock they must have felt when the tomb was empty. Who has taken the body? Now they cannot even perform this rite, which they have come prepared for.

I wonder how long it took for them to comprehend the words the angels told them. He is not here; he has risen!

I can't help but think how often I go about my daily tasks, many of them mundane, without expecting anything amazing, without remembering that God is there with me, without being ready for any surprises he might spring on me. Letting myself be limited by the chores and tasks ahead, without expecting the unexpected ...

He is risen indeed!
May I remember this more often in the future.