“who made this report to the apostles.”  Luke 24:10

Reporters. These women reported what they saw, what they found, what they were told, and what they concluded. The companions, Mary of Magdala, Joanna, and Mary, the mother of James, were eyewitnesses who gave a full accounting of their early dawn experience at the tomb to the other apostles.  

Giving a report is different than telling a story. Giving a report involves stating the sequential information gathered and experienced. It is a relay of facts and details that have been seen, heard, discovered, and investigated. That JB Phillips uses the word “report” instead of “told” (as in the New Revised Standard Version translation) brings a nuanced understanding of what these women shared and how they shared it with others. Reporting involves an almost clinical, unemotional approach. It uses few exclamation marks. Reporting provides information in a measured format that allows the recipient to come to their own conclusion.

When something has happened beyond belief, out of this world even, relaying it in a fashion that tempers the emotional content may help the content of the event to be received more successfully. We can assume that this community of women discussed how they would share their experience and give their “report” to others. What they had to share was astounding and needed to be communicated in such a way that it would be understood, received, and comprehended.

But, some things, no matter how accurately reported, are simply unbelievable.

As followers of Jesus, what we know and what we believe is seeded in this first reporting of the resurrection. We have prayed with this “report” in Luke’s Gospel over these last 28 days. This is deep spiritual investigative work. Today, spend some time with the fantastic elements of the women’s account of their experience that morning. Recover hearing it for the first time. Be astounded by their words as they report to you what happened, what they saw, what they didn’t see, who they met, and the conclusions drawn. Listen with your head, and then listen with your heart. Welcome hope in the hearing.

Prayer: Gracious God, make me a witness. Rekindle my believing and my living in the Risen One that I may let my life be the evidence of your saving power. Amen. Alleluia.

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