Go back to Galilee

Easter Vigil April 8, 2023 Matthew 28:1-10 After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, approached, rolled back the stone, and sat upon it. His appearance was like lightning and his clothing was white as snow. The guards were shaken with fear of him and became like dead men. Then the angel said to the women in reply, “Do not be afraid! I know that you are seeking Jesus the crucified. He is not here, for he has been raised just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him.’ Behold, I have told you.” Then they went away quickly from the tomb, fearful yet overjoyed, and ran to announce this to his disciples. And behold, Jesus met them on their way and greeted them. They approached, embraced his feet, and did him homage. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.” I don’t know if it is because I just got back from the Holy Land, but I seem to be paying more attention to places when they are named in the Gospels. Today it mentions Galilee twice; first an angel says that Jesus is going ahead of them to Galilee and the last line of the Gospel is: “Go tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.” Why do they have to go back to Galilee? Galilee is in the North of Israel; it is the other end of the country. Maybe only 100 miles but still a long way if your only mode of transportation is walking. Jerusalem is the capital; it is the city where all the action is. Everyone goes to Jerusalem. It was the political, economic, and social center of Israel. It was like rolling Los Angeles, New York City and Washington DC into one. It is the place to be. Galilee… why that is like saying, Go back to Wisconsin. Once you’ve made it to California it doesn’t make any sense to go back, why go back to Galilee? Again, the Disciples only would have had one mode of transportation. They would have had to have walked the 100 miles. If you would a good walker you could do 20 miles a day; so that is a minimum of 5 days but there were no Holiday Inns on the way, no they would have had to have camped. There also weren’t any restaurants; no Inn and Out, No Norms so they would have had to carry their food with them. Samaria was enemy territory; you would want to avoid that area and thieves and bandits were known to hang out on the road to Galilee. So why not just stay in Jerusalem? Why did they have to go back to Galilee? The small back water town where no one good came from! What is the significance of returning to Galilee? Galilee is the place where everything began. They are to return there, to return to the place where they were first called. In Galilee, Jesus had walked along the shores of the lake as the fishermen were casting their nets. There he had called them, and there they had left everything and followed him. It was in Galilee that Jesus worked most of his miracles, where he preached and lived and ministered. Twice the women are told to tell the disciples to go to Galilee where they will meet Jesus for themselves. The women do as they are asked and the disciples set out for Galilee. What a desolate journey that must have been for them. Believing the extraordinary story of Mary Magdalene and her companions, the disciples set out in fear of their lives, and in the hope of seeing Jesus raised from the dead. There were no reassurances from anyone’s previous experience. No guidebooks or instructions about what to look for at the end. Not even a promise from Jesus, himself. Just an instruction, ‘Then go quickly and tell his disciples, “He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.”’ (Mt 28:7). For each of us, too, there is a ‘Galilee’ at the start of our journey with Jesus. ‘Go to Galilee’ means rediscovering our baptism as a living spring, drawing new energy from the sources of our faith and our Christian experience. To return to Galilee means, above all, to return to that blazing light with which God’s grace touched you at the start of the journey. In the life of every Christian, after baptism there is also another ‘Galilee’: the experience of a personal encounter with Jesus Christ who called me to follow him and to share in his mission. In this sense, returning to Galilee means treasuring in my heart the living memory of that call, when Jesus passed my way, gazed at me with mercy, and asked me to follow him. To return there means reviving the memory of that moment when his eyes met mine, the moment when he made me realise that he loved me. Where is your Galilee? Galilee obviously isn’t that physical place in Northern Israel. It is a situation, a frame of mind, or a choice we make. Our particular Galilee could be the desolate journey of physical, emotional, sexual or spiritual pain. It could be dashed promises, broken relationships, or unrealised hopes. It may simply be the unremarkable circumstances of our everyday lives. Whatever it is, the joy-filled and hope-filled message of Easter is the promise made to us that Christ is not only there when we arrive, he has gone ahead of us, to that desolate place, so that we might have loving arms in which to fall at journey’s end. There the Lord is waiting for you. Do not be afraid, do not fear, return to Galilee! The gospel is very clear: we need to go back there, to see Jesus risen and to become witnesses of his resurrection. This is not to go back in time; it is not a kind of nostalgia. It is returning to our first love, in order to receive the fire that Jesus has kindled in the world and to bring that fire to all people, to the very ends of the earth. Go back to Galilee, without fear! Jesus is waiting for you there! https://www.thinkingfaith.org/articles/return-galilee