March 31, Easter 1B (Mark 16:1–8)
Resurrection flies in the face of everything we know to be true.
“Free at last, free at last, thank God almighty I’m free at last!” These resounding words are most often remembered as the closing words of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, but they are taken from the spiritual “Free at Last”:
Way down yonder in the graveyard walk,
Me and my Jesus going to meet and talk.
On my knees when the light passed by,
Thought my soul would rise and fly.
Some of these mornings, bright and fair,
Goin’ to meet King Jesus in the air.
Free at last, free at last,
Thank God Almighty I’m free at last!
The freedom described in this spiritual is a freedom born of life after death. The writer is yearning for freedom from the consequences of death. Resurrection, the expected upending of death’s consequences, is not only something to reach for but something that changes how we live here and now.
