If we waver on this so-called fact, take heart. We’re in good company. See it in the honesty imbedded in the Easter stories. The first disciples had no framework in their minds by which they could accept the fact that Jesus was alive. In John’s version of the Easter story, for example, Mary Magdalene had only death and sorrow on her mind, and though she dearly loved him, didn’t recognize the risen Jesus when he was standing right in front of her! Resurrection is not your normal thing after all. People are not in the habit of rising up from the dead. And so, on the first Easter, even Jesus’ closest friends could not at first believe what had happened.
"Years ago there was a story about a judge in Yugoslavia who had an unfortunate accident. He was electrocuted when he reached up to turn on the light while standing in the bathtub. His wife found his body sprawled on the bathroom floor. She called for help, friends and neighbors, police, the whole shebang showed up. He was pronounced dead and taken to the funeral home. The local radio picked up the story and broadcast it all over the airwaves. In the middle of the night, the judge came to. [With a shock] he realized where he was, and rushed over to alert the night watchman, who promptly ran off, terrified.
"His [next] thought was to phone his wife and reassure her. But he got no further than, "Darling, it's me," when she screamed and fainted. He tried calling a couple of the neighbors but they all thought it was some sort of sick prank. He even went so far as to go to the homes of several friends but they were all sure he was a ghost. Finally, he was able to call a friend in the next town who hadn't heard of his death. This friend was able to convince his family and other friends that he really was alive." Bruce Larson, LIVING BEYOND OUR FEARS (New York: Harper & Row, 1990).
So what’s the problem? People are just not in the habit of coming back from the dead. We are used to death as final. But beyond that, death is also a symbol for the shadow that hangs over much of existence. Heartbreak, conflict, cruelty, weary us at home and jobsite. Our spirits can be ground down to the point where we feel like nothing, and are tempted to believe the deadly thing. And what’s that? "There is no hope. Nothing can ever really change. My life and this old world will always be this same old grind. I might just well give up and wait for rigor mortis to set in." In other words, death rules!
Well, if anybody’s feeling that way this morning, take heart! You’ve come to a place where Life rules, where Easter is always overcoming the bullying of death in order to give God’s people faith, hope, and courage. To be sure, the Church has many faults and failings and sometimes seems like anything but a place of new life. Indeed, sometimes that Church itself has acted like a bully bent on indoctrination, forcing people to believe certain things in order to be saved, while their lives continued to feel stressed, worried, and in some ways even more hopeless. But that’s not the real story or the real Church, and many of you could stand up and say with me this morning that you’ve found out that Church is really about the miracle of Easter. And the miracle is not just that God’s brilliance seared the darkness of hell and emptied a tomb two thousand years ago. The miracle is the ongoing presence of the risen Christ in the church on earth.
Jesus Christ, was truly raised from the dead and lives today, among us: Among us! That is the miracle and brilliance of Easter for us now.
Says one scholar, "It is important to be aware that the Resurrection is not simply the resuscitation of the body of Jesus which died on the Cross. No one SAW the resurrection because there was nothing to SEE. The crucifixion is a historical event; the resurrection is a faith event. The Risen Jesus enters a completely new way of living. The post-Resurrection texts all indicate that [though] he is not recognized at first by even his intimate friends, he is everywhere that his disciples happen to be and his new Body, the means of his being visibly present among us, is the community of his disciples. We are, quite literally, at this time the Body of Christ." Frank Doyle SJ
Jesus Christ, was truly raised from the dead and lives today, among us. And Easter, then, is not about some vague spiritual high, but is the experience of the transforming power of God in the ways that the Church has always been humbled and exalted by God: in the best of times and the worst of times, gathering around Word and Sacrament, re-telling and re-experiencing the story of Christ and of his suffering, death, and resurrection. This is what happens during our Catechumenate, and what happened here last night at the Easter Vigil when eight people renounced evil and accepted Jesus’ story as the meaning and purpose of life, when they were baptized.
For Mary Magdalene everything changed in the instant when she heard the Risen One with great tenderness speak her name, "Mary." So for us: new life begins as our names are spoken at baptism. Here, among our brothers and sisters, we experience for the first time, and then over and over again: Really and truly we are forgiven. Really and truly we are loved. Really and truly, we can have new life. Easter truly is the miracle of God’s everlasting gift of mercy, forgiveness, justice, hope and reconciliation, alive in our flesh and blood, in our time and place in history—and forever in heaven.
Easter therefore comes down to this amazing thing: the church itself, in gatherings such as these, is the best evidence there is of the resurrection. I think it’s kind of like this: One night, to calm her frightened child, a mother said, "Don't be afraid of the dark, honey, God is with you." To which the child replied, "But I need somebody with skin on."
The Church is the risen Christ with skin on. And therefore, if we want it, Easter is right here, right now. Jesus Christ, was truly raised from the dead and lives today, among us. Alleluia! Amen.