Scripture: As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed. Mark 16:5
Observation: Clearly, Mary, Solame, and Mary encountered a heavenly messenger when they arrived at the tomb, who informed them of Jesus' resurrection and gave them instructions for communicating to the disciples. We know so little about heavenly beings. There are traditions about certain archangels like Michael and Gabriel, but almost nothing about others. This prompted a search of whom this was in the tomb.
And ... holy smokes. Search results are, in a word, nuts. One Christian explanation is that this is the same "young man" who lost his robe while fleeing the scene in Gethsemane ... which was Mark himself, a person well known to the women, and thus that makes no sense. The first result, however, is that this was Dionysus, the androgynous son of Zeus. Other accounts explain this man is similar non-Christian ways, that he was some individual just there.
What is most amazing is the attempt by non-Christians to create complex explanations for this person. These are people who believe other "religions". By explaining the identity of this person, they are in fact declaring that they actually believe the event - the resurrection - occurred! How is it possible to believe that Jesus was resurrected from the dead, yet not believe in his Messiahship? They do this, of course, by rooting their belief system in other myths and therefore inventing evidence to advance those beliefs.
Application: This is the world we live in today ... a society that is readily willing to adopt wild and impossible systems of belief and then leverage those systems to guide their life, while simultaneously rejecting God. They accept the impossible and unexplainable, while explaining away the obvious and relatively easy. They would rather embrace a complex collection of supernatural phenomenon wrapped by a loose theory, than the truth about a loving creator who seeks only to include them in his family for eternity.
This is post-Christian America. This is Babylon. This is a place where people will believe anything and everything, except the truth. In fact, they actively reject the very concept of truth, declaring that there is no such thing except for what each person experiences in their own life. How can we take the truth into Babylon? How can we engage in conversations in a society that rejects the idea the conversation should even occur?
The answer is, we can't. We can only show love, and tell of Christ crucified. Jesus will take care of the rest.
Prayer: Lord, may I be your love today. That is all. I don't want to be your logic, your justification, your explanation, your evidence, your purpose. Not in this place and time. But I can be your love. Help me to have that heart for others. Amen.
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