Christ is risen indeed.
Happy Easter to everyone reading this.
How quickly the seasons change! During the last week of lent — Passiontide — the daily readings in the New Way of Living have focused on the Easter events.
What a story it is — a tale of devotion, love, grief, betrayal, denial and death.
Devotion of the woman who anointed Jesus as preparation for his death (Matt 26.11)
Love poured out as Jesus washing the disciples’ feet. (John 13.4)
Grief as Jesus prayed to the Abba-Amma to let “this cup pass from him” (Matt 26.38-9)
Betrayal as Judas led the soldiers and officials to Jesus (John 18)
Further betrayal by the crowds as the ones who lay down palm branches with cries of “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of G*d — the saviour of Israel” turned to the crowds who shouted “crucify”. (John 12:14)
Denial as Peter refused to admit he knew Jesus (Matt 26)
Torture at the hands of Pilate — flogging and slapping (John 19:1-3)
Death as Jesus is crucified — a cruel and painful practice.
I suspect that for those who followed Jesus, the crucifixion was more than the horror seeing the one they loved being put to such a painful physical death.
It was an end.
It was a finality.
It was the death of all they had hoped for,
It was the death of all they had believed in,
It was the death of all they had given their lives to.
It is hard to imagine the fear, the despair, the agony, the confusion the disciples must have felt.
But happily, that is not the end of the story—
Christ is risen.
Christ is risen indeed.
In our lectionary passage for today (John 20:1-18) early in the morning Mary went to the tomb. Mary found the stone had been removed and the body was gone. I’m sure this caused her sorrow to be even deeper. Not even a body to tend and prepare, an important part of both custom and grieving process.
Mary went and told two other disciples who returned with her to check the veracity of her words. They too saw the evidence of the missing body. Perhaps one of the saddest lines summing up their despair is they “returned to their homes”. Even the body was gone, it was pointless hanging around.
Yet, Mary did. Mary stayed by the empty tomb weeping. In the depths of her grief, she peeped into the tomb and saw a vision of two angels. I wonder if at that point a flicker of hope rose in her heart. A little ray of light penetrating the darkness. The angels spoke asking why she wept. Her response was that she did not know where the body of Jesus was. In the text, even at this point Mary’s hope was not of resurrection but of finding the body of the one she loved so she could care for it. She needed to do that, her last gift to her friend.
But as soon as she had spoken, she became aware of a person behind her.
She did not recognise the person as Jesus. I think there is something important to grasp here, the physical, the body was completely different, there was nothing recognisable. Everything was changed.
The author of the gospel commented that Mary then supposed it was a gardener and asked if they had removed the body. Mary was still thinking about her duty of care, her last outpouring of love not of a resurrected Christ.
But everything changed as her name was spoken. It is a powerful thing to use someone’s name, it denotes relationship and care. It is connection between human beings. I can’t think of a better or more meaningful way of bringing forth the truth of resurrection than that single spoken word “Mary”. (15)
Immediately recognition followed. I can’t begin to imagine what thoughts must have been going through Mary’s head as in a moment grief turned to joy, despair turned to hope.
It was not the end.
It was a new beginning.
Everything had changed.
Life had won.
Mary’s response was to go and share the news with the others who loved Jesus so they too could find renewed hope and joy.
Mary, the apostle to the apostles running to bring the good news —
Christ is risen.
Christ is risen indeed.
