When my children were very young we
awoke on an Easter morning to find their little gold fish on its
side, lifeless. I declared him dead. Being less sensitive in those
early adult days I suggested we use the toilet as the means to bury
the fish. As soon as I carefully poured the fish into the toilet he
began to swim actively. Well, suddenly the word 'resurrection' had a very real
and exciting meaning to the children. That Easter they needed no
Sunday School lesson or sermon to inform them of the experience of
resurrection. Their fish was back alive. I learned to not be so quick
to declare anything as dead. And I may have begun to consider that
the actual experience of resurrection is an internal reality, not
primarily something on the outside of us.
Resurrection is the great mystery and the great hope that the Christian religion brings to bear upon the question of life's meaning and purpose. Reading the ending of each gospel you will find they tell the story in different ways with varying details. Every gospel 'appearance' story of Jesus is unique. Not one of the gospels tells any appearance story that is also told by the others. This only shows that the story some fifty to hundred years after Jesus' death was told in different ways in different Christian communities. It was not a single set story. It was a story that grew and developed as more people were touched by this remarkable life of love and courage. But they all agree that somehow the presence of Jesus of Nazareth, the one who had loved his friends dearly, the one who had taken a stand against the exploitation of the common people by the political and religious powers in their lives, had not been successfully killed by his physical death. He had been raised by God from such a permanently destructive death. And the same hope that his word and action had inspired among abused, beleaguered and outcast people was even more alive now than before.
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| The Symbolism Of The 'Empty Tomb' Still Speaks. |
It is unfortunate that our modern
overly rational and materialistic attitude places a much higher value
on Jesus' physical body and person being literally raised from the
dead than on his Spirit being alive and living in the hearts of
people then and now. To take the story materialistically may cause
some to say, “Wow, how did that happen?”, but taking
resurrection as a spiritual reality is what can make it
trans-formative for our actual lives. Potentially resurrection can
change and enliven ones whole view of life and love. Ever since
that first message began to spread by his women friends and mother
that 'He is not here. He has been raised.', other humans have been
inspired to take up his call of love for humanity and his desire
that among humankind God's way of responsible justice and
courageous love 'be on earth as it is in heaven.' It would be a
mistake this morning to attempt to explain perhaps the greatest
mystery in human history. Mysteries are not meant to be explained but
to serve as inspiration to the human Spirit. Inspiration to live
fully, love extravagantly and serve selflessly for the good of all
kinds of people. I wish to call attention to two phrases in
Matthew's story.
- He is not here. They came in the darkness expecting to see the dead body of Jesus. The dead body of one whose stand against the abusive dominating forces over people had been crushed and ended by his enemies. They felt discouraged that his death proved again that good does not prevail over evil. But they heard a voice from the Sacred that is heard in all healthy religions , 'Things are not as they seem'. Our Christian faith has nearly been swallowed up by itself today by the thinking that the mysteries of faith are based and stand on proven physical facts. When the world of the Spirit is so viewed the stories of faith become dead stories of the past and have little power to affect our lives in the present. But when the old stories of faith are received as just that, stories of faith and realities of the human heart, then we too, with heart and brain in tact, can trust that 'He is not here. He has been raised.' He lives not as the mortal Jesus of Nazareth , not as one who is limited to time and space. No, he is not here. He is now everywhere. His Spirit lives. He is risen indeed!!
- It was women who the Matthew story says first experienced his living presence. How amazing that is. It says mounds about how Jesus turned the meaning of male and female upside down. In that culture women were rarely the first or leader of anything. Their word or testimony counted for little. They were second class citizens, no more powerful over the male hierarchy than slaves. But this writer says it was women who first received the understanding that Jesus was alive. His 'kingdom of God' had only been nourished by his murder. His life of love and justice had been vindicated by God. His influence over humankind had only begun, not ended. And the first men who got that new 'good news' were perhaps humbled, for it was from the mouths of women that they received it. Jesus will forever speak the most loud through the underdogs of life, through the otherwise powerless, the terminally ill, through the rejected , through the sinner. Jesus will always be lifting up , resurrecting, the part of humanity that has been pushed down and crushed, whoever that may be in any situation or generation.
- 'He is going ahead of you to Galilee'. The women are told this by the angel and when they sensed the presence of Jesus he tells them the same thing again,' Tell my brothers to go to Galilee. There they will see me'. This is another voice that is the opposite of what is expected. Why do they not get to see him here in Jerusalem? Jerusalem is the city of power, the city of the wealthy, the place of the religious and political elite. Galilee is the area of the common people, the riff-raff; representing the powerless, the oppressed, the outcasts, the downtrodden. Also referred to biblically as the 'Galilee of the Gentiles' (Isaiah 9:1).
Jesus Healing A Blind Person...@ 1650 CE
What does this
tell us about where to find the resurrected Jesus ourselves? The
story is saying we should generally look for the spirit of Jesus in
those who strike us as 'the other' and the unimportant, the non
stakeholders. Jesus' concern is found in the lives and the needs,
the hopes and dreams of ordinary people of everyday circumstances.
We will not relate to the resurrected Spirit of Jesus by identifying
with the pride associated with big names, high powered, high tech religious programs, or
places of corporate greed and political power grabbing. Jesus' Spirit will be in places of power but to correct the wrongs directed at the most marginalized among us. Jesus will
be heard in the voices of persons seeking to bring what is good ,
right and needed as the basic needs of human life....
reasonable physical safety, opportunity to learn and grow, a sustaining share in the
natural resources of the earth, an equal level of protection from the destruction by human disease and natural disaster, a human community
where all people and all human needs are honored equally no matter
one's race, ethnicity, religious heritage or any such difference.
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