Listowel Banner Submission: April 11, 2012
From the Minister’s Desk,
Resurrection. It comes to us unexpectedly. We are never fully prepared for it. The story doesn’t finish at the cross; it leads to an empty tomb. It’s almost too good to be true. In a world of broken promises and extreme suffering, resurrection hope is not easily grasped. It comes to us unexpectedly. But if it’s any comfort, no one in the story of John’s Gospel was ready for it either.
Mary Magdalene was the first to the tomb.
It wasn’t her faith and hope in the resurrection that brought her there.
She wasn’t expecting anything. She traveled to the tomb in the dark, perhaps privately grieving the loss of her Lord. When Mary discovered the empty tomb she ran to tell Peter and he ran to the tomb with another disciple to confirm her report.
The scene at the empty tomb is a peculiar one.
Instead of seeing the empty tomb as a fulfillment of Jesus’ earlier prediction they worry that the body may have been stolen.
Instead of publicly declaring the good news of the empty tomb Jesus’ followers went back home. They are found cloistered in a room with the double lock on the doors for fear of the authorities and the inevitable persecution that would come their way.
But in the middle of their lowest point Jesus showed up and stood before them. He walked right through the locked doors that stood between them. Jesus breathed the life of the Holy Spirit into them and sent them out into the world to be witnesses of his resurrection.
One week had passed and you would think by now the disciples would get it and be out telling others about what God had done. But that is not what happened. They remained indoors under lock and key. Jesus appeared to them again and he walked through the locked doors. He did not condemn them for lingering in their fears but encouraged them to believe.
The disciples are not so different from us.
We recently experienced the rush of Easter pageantry. The smell of Easter lilies was in the air. Our burdens were lifted as we clung to the hope of the Christ’s resurrection. And then a week goes by and it’s back to business as usual. The usual disappointments, bad news and the general aches and pains of living. By now most of us would rather lock the doors of our hearts and hide because we are afraid to hope.
But it is precisely at the ordinary and even low points in our lives that the resurrected Christ shows up. He walks through the locked doors of our heart and cuts through our fears to speak a word of comfort and courage: “do not be afraid.”
What if we grasped that Christ’s resurrection was not a one-time event but something that still happens in the everyday lives of Christ’s followers?
What if resurrection was something not only celebrated on Easter Sunday but something that shaped our lives and everything we do?
What if resurrection was not only something we believe but something we practice on a day to day basis?
How would that impact the way we live?
Resurrection opened a whole new world for Mary and the disciples. There was no going back to business as usual.
Like the disciples you may not be ready for resurrection. It may take you some time to process the difference it makes.
And you will certainly be surprised when the resurrected Christ shows up in your life filling you anew with life and hope and encouraging you once again to believe his promise.