Jacob Lee Easter April 12, 2020
“Jesus is risen. He is risen indeed.”
<Acts 10:34-43, John 20: 1-18>
In these challenging times, when we are all locked down in our homes, it’s hard not to get obsessed by daily news of the Coronavirus pandemic and all the fear and anxiety that generates. It’s hard not to be focused on the daily and weekly survival of ourselves and those close to us. But we are nevertheless still journeying from the season of Lent to the season of Easter, and Easter Sunday is the most important feast in the Church year. The core mystery of our Christian faith is in the resurrection of Jesus.
We have all have experienced pain, grief, and loss in our lives, so in the well-known story of Jesus’ resurrection, we all have had some experience of the pain of Mary Magdalene as she goes to the tomb to prepare the body of her loved one for final burial. She arrives very early on the first day of the week, which is her first opportunity to do so.
Mary starts running once she gets to the tomb and sees that the stone that was covering it has rolled away. She runs to find Peter and the others and tells them what she has seen. Peter and another disciple go back to the tomb with her to see for themselves. They see the strips of linen lying empty, as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’s head. But there is no dead body.
Mary is confused and grief-stricken, when someone she thinks is the gardener, speaks to her: “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” And then Jesus says to her, “Mary!” And she replies, “Teacher.” Jesus tells her “Go to my brothers, and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” Mary goes to tell the disciples, “I have seen the Lord.”
Sometimes, when we are preoccupied with what we think is happening, we miss what is really happening. Jesus had told his friends that he would be killed and rise again in three days. Mary is the first witness to the risen Jesus. Jesus’ word and presence enable her to respond, to tell the others and to continue in Jesus’ way and life and truth.
Resurrection is about believing that the Jesus has come to life again. It is believing that death is not the end, but the beginning of a new life. What does it mean to start a new life beyond death? Does the new life after death just mean physical life? If resurrection meant only physical life in the hereafter, there would be no transformation in our worldly life, mind, and spirit right now. “Coming back to life again” is not only about the body, but also the mind, heart, and spirit. The resurrection of Jesus is about much more than Jesus being physically alive again.
The resurrection of Jesus signifies that death is not the end, but the beginning of a new life, and that new life is God’s vision for the here and now. It means that we can be transformed into something new. The spiritual meaning of resurrection is transformation.
What does transformation mean? Our second reading from Acts tells us about Peter’s transformation, which occurs as a result of Jesus’ resurrection. The same Peter who runs in bewilderment and confusion in John’s gospel is the same Peter who denied knowing Jesus three times because he was afraid. This same Peter is now, several months later, preaching boldly in public about Jesus and his message about the Kingdom of God. How did this change in Peter happen?
Peter proclaims that Jesus has risen and it is he, Jesus, who has commissioned Peter and the others to spread his message of healing, forgiveness, compassion, and peace for the sake of the kingdom of God. Peter also says that no amount of evil and injustice, no amount of brutal oppression can destroy the power of Jesus to create new life grounded in and on love.
The reason for this power is that Jesus preached forgiveness from the very cross on he was crucified. Humankind sought to destroy him; and he responded with forgiveness. His love cannot be destroyed by the poison of hate, jealousy, and fear. It will rise up and transform any heart that is open to him. Only forgiveness opens up peace in a world of wicked violence. Only forgiveness can change hate and fear into openness. Only forgiveness can heal bitterness and despair, because it builds bridges and creates openings. That’s the resurrection message. The crucified Jesus forgives, and by forgiving, his message of healing, compassion, and new life becomes transformational.
The resurrection story is not just about resurrection in itself; it’s also about the journey to resurrection. It’s about how we journey from this time of cross or loss or crisis into new life. How do we journey from here to resurrection? How do we overcome this trial of disease and isolation? How do we equip ourselves so that when resurrection opens the door we are ready to walk through it?
This season of Covid-19 is a super concentrated time where something hidden in us can sprout up and grow in ways we could never predict or anticipate. The key will be how we absorb reality for what it is rather than fear it. Let’s not fear our own fear. Let’s pay attention to it, have compassion for ourselves rather than judgement. Let’s accept our fear rather than seek to escape it by drugging ourselves into oblivion… and let’s wait for that seed to grow in us, trusting a larger goodness of God to work in and through us over this time. This is the spirit of the resurrected Jesus.
The resurrection of Jesus whom we call Christ transforms and makes all things new. To believe in the resurrection is to experience it in our daily lives again and again. The hope of rising with Jesus to overcome the struggles and pains of our broken, wayward, fragile, human life is to believe and see our daily living with Easter eyes. The risen Christ shares his hope and renewal with us and others and with all who call on him for help.
Resurrection reminds us that we are keepers of Christian hope and we are empowered, God being our helper, to be transmitters of God’s grace, forgiveness, hope, peace, and new life, even in this battle with the ongoing spread of the global pandemic. We are called to pass on Jesus’ faith and hope in the way we live each day with one another in prayer, on the phone, or through social media, even though we are physically stuck in our homes. Easter is a time for each of us to renew our faith based on Jesus’ faith and to put our trust in the Jesus who rose from the dead to a new, risen life.
Like Peter, living and preaching the forgiveness he experienced after he betrayed and abandoned his Lord, and like the bewildered and confused followers of Jesus who were so caught in their fear they could not figure out any way forward, we too need to encounter the risen Jesus in a transformational way, again and again, as life happens and change comes on our journey. We need to meet the risen Jesus just like Mary Magdalene did. We need the Spirit of the risen Jesus to open up new ways for us to endure this challenging time of social distancing and self-isolation.
May we open ourselves anew and may we follow the risen Jesus, who is calling to each of us wherever we are right now, especially during these scary, uncertain, and precarious times.
Jesus is risen, he is risen, indeed. Hallelujah!
Amen.
