Go!
“Afterward [Jesus] appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at table, and he rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen. And he said to them, ‘Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation (Mark 16:14-15).
This passage from the end of Mark’s Gospel is the source of the Psalm response for this coming Sunday at Mass. It is a command. “Go!”
We could translate the Greek word as “walk on,” “accompany,” travel,” that is, get out there into the world, whether that’s the world of your marriage and family, your workplace, your school, your football team – whatever.
And do what?
Well, Jesus makes that clear too. “Go and be a herald of what I have done and of what you are witnesses.” Announce the incredible, extraordinary, life-changing and life-saving truth of the gospel. And what is this extraordinary news? That God is real. That He cares. That He not only creates, He rescues. He becomes one of us to liberate us from those powers that we cannot defeat on our own, namely Sin and Death. The news is that we matter – matter to God. The news is that we are made to be loved and to love (in that order). The news is that we don’t have to be bound by fear, hatred, suspicion, animosity, vengeance, lust, greed and pride. The news is that we were made for abundant life.
Jesus gave this task to men whom He rebuked for their unbelief and hardness of heart. Early on Easter Sunday morning, the women had gone to the tomb and found it empty. But that wasn’t the core of their testimony. The core was the startlingly, unheard of announcement that they had met Him alive. But the eleven did not believe them.
Perhaps the Lord wishes to rebuke us, His Church, this day too…Perhaps He wishes to rebuke us for our unbelief and hardness of heart. And what might our unbelief be? Well, perhaps for more than a few of us, it’s our unbelief in the power of the gospel. The gospel still “works,” it still changes lives. In fact, the announcement of what God has done for us in Jesus is the only news that can give hope to a dying race, a race that is increasingly suspicious of “the other,” and sees the world through a set of lenses that lead to anxiety, anger and despair.
It is with this very command from Jesus in mind that we in ACTS XXIX have created and will release this Saturday The Rescue Project (rescueproject.us). It’s our way of being a herald of the good news. It’s our way of giving hope. It’s our way of helping others to see that life is not in vain, it’s not a tale told by an idiot full of sound and fury. It’s a tale of a good Father and us, His beloved sons and daughters. It’s a tale replete with all the things any great drama contains: a glorious and beautiful beginning, a horrific enemy who must be defeated, an incredible battle between good and evil, a meaningful mission entrusted to each one of us right now, and an ending beyond all description.
Someone has written, “Tell someone to do something, and you change their life—for a day; tell someone a story and you change their life.”[1]
The eleven were born for that time; this is our time. We were born for this. Let’s go.
[1] N. T. Wright, The New Testament and the People of God, Christian Origins and the Question of God (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1992), 40.
