Isaiah 25:6-9; Mark 16:1-8
Easter Sunday: April 12, 2009
Throughout Lent, we have been examining the reasons why Jesus was tortured and killed on a cross. Under God’s light, we have squirmed a bit as we confronted our own complicity in violent systems and governments; systems and governments much like the ones that arrested and killed Jesus. During Lent, we walked to the cross with Jesus both as his disciples and as his executioners. In the midst of this, the cross stands as a painful symbol – until…
We remember and experience the truth of resurrection. God does not save us – make us whole and free - through the violence of the cross. In the resurrection we see that God brings us wholeness and forgiveness in the midst of violence by offering new possibilities – a new way found in the life of Jesus. We know Jesus lived in a violent world, but he chose otherwise. He was killed, but his nonviolent way of life was vindicated in resurrection which affirmed that even his own death could not kill the power of the life he lived.
Fully forgiven, we realize that God’s light is no longer painful, but rather illuminates the path for us as disciples of the risen Christ. And on that path we will find the freedom we so desperately seek – freedom from what keeps us locked in habits and ways of life that are destructive to us and others. We are freed to a new way of life – but not just as individuals. In the resurrection we are joined together as the body of Christ, the gathered community of people who carry on the ministry of Jesus.
It is as if when Jesus exits the tomb, his very being pours out on to all of humanity – floods hearts with love and infuses us with his very spirit that we might now be the body of Christ. It defies logic and in our faith tradition we give our lives over to a truth that can never be fully articulated; only experienced and lived.
We stand in awe before the grandness of the resurrection; and we are often are struck silent by its mystery. Something rings true for us, but putting that truth into words eludes us much of the time. Did it happen? Is it real? Is it only symbolic? Can death ever be “swallowed up forever,” as Isaiah hopes? Such questions are important, essential even, to ask even though we suspect we will never have complete answers. But even standing in between the question and the resolution, something about the resurrection resonates deep in our souls. It is the same truth that resonates with creation itself in its own cycles of death and life.
The mystery is so great, that in the end, silence is often the only way we can articulate the truth of the resurrection. I read once that, “silence is the language of faith, and action is its interpretation”. While we may not have the exact words, we are changed in the resurrection and our actions reflect the mystery of a love that has flooded our hearts and will not let us go. With our hearts flooded with the love of God, and our souls transformed by the truth of new life in the most unexpected places, we leave here to translate that to the world in our actions. Amen.
