Now it begins: confusion, questions, “What-ifs,” excitement, “Could it be true?” “It’s all make-believe,” “Never heard of such a thing,” “Maybe,” “Too good to be true,” “She said/he said,” “I saw him with my own eyes!” “Touch here,” “I believe,” “My Lord and my God!”—– What other responses to the Resurrection have you heard?
No one ever said believing in the resurrection was going to be easy. It wasn’t then; it isn’t now. There are some stories about the empty tomb and others about the risen Christ’s appearances. Even these stories, though similar, differ in some details. Why didn’t the early church clean up their stories? Get them to correspond? After all, we need support as we try to convince others Christ is alive. It would have helped to have neater stories to back up our case. Plus, today’s gospel is an unusual one for Easter Sunday when the church is packed with a blend of occasional worshipers, the familiar faces, and others we might recognize from the supermarket line — but never see in our pews.
Couldn’t we have a reading on Easter Sunday with a little more spectacle, bright lights, angels blasting away at trumpets and trombones? Instead, what we have today is Mary’s bad news to the disciples that Jesus’ body had been stolen and Peter and “the other disciple’s” foot race and arrival at the empty tomb. The “other” goes in after Peter, “saw and believed.” What’s that all about? It’s Easter Sunday and we don’t even have an appearance story! Enough complaining — let’s see what we do have.
I bet most of us grew up in hard-working families. We learned early about getting things done, fixing what’s broken, finishing what we started. We over achievers can point with pride to the work we have done in the course of our lifetimes. But we are not so boastful about what hasn’t worked out: our disappointment in the messes we have made in some relationships; projects we started, but never finished and the on-again, off-again practice of our faith.
We achiever types need to take a break today. Instead of rolling up our sleeves to tackle the loose ends of the narrative of this day we could just let it happen. Not to worry, we are not going to go into a passive state; nor will we turn off our hyper-functioning brains. But we could try, at least for today, letting the mystery of Easter roll over us. Just take it in and let the awe and power of this day do its work in us. After all, even with all our doubts, at the heart of it, we are believers. We have said our “Amens” to the line in the Apostle’s Creed that says, “On the third day he rose again from the dead.” Today we achievers can’t make things neat and logical. We let the celebration do its work in us and define us.
We welcome the living Christ through the closed doors of our past; what has been hurt, broken and incomplete. We let Easter’s risen Christ do for us what we haven’t done well. We open the doors and bid Christ make a home in the places and memories that stir up pain, shame and brokenness. Today we let this feast do its healing, restoring and resurrecting life in us.
Can we say that the reason we have an “empty tomb” story today is to remind us that Christ isn’t in the tomb, locked up in history 20 centuries ago? He lives in each of us. The tomb couldn’t hold him back, nor should we. Put out the welcome mat, unlock the door, usher new life in. Now we can start all over. Now we can bury the past; it’s over, it’s forgiven. Now we disciples leave all that behind so that we can travel light and share the good news, “Christ is risen, Christ is risen indeed!”
Mary Magdalene goes with closed doors to the tomb. She is locked in by the still-fresh memory of Christ’s death. She comes to do what had to be done; mourn and spend some time with the one she loved, now lifeless in the tomb. We come to worship in a similar way; locked up with past “what if’s” and “if only’s.” We want to work our way to grace, clean it all up and get on with our lives. Well we can put away the wash buckets, sponges and rubber gloves. We know by now that on our own we might be able to freshen things up a bit, but not create new life where there has been death.
We let the feast wash over us. We let go of our doubts, worries, questions and, as best we can, our anxieties. Instead, we open our ears to take in the good news that Colossians proclaims, “You were raised with Christ.” That risen Christ is here among us: in the assembly gathered in his name; in the Word proclaimed and in the bread and wine we share.
Had we over achievers been there during the first Holy Week we would have been working hard to “make things turn out right.” But they didn’t and we wouldn’t have been able to do anything about it. Chaos reigned and the movers and shakers among the disciples fled with everyone else. They and we find out that, though things didn’t work out the way we might have wanted, God is victorious after all and has raised Jesus from the dead. Now the tomb is empty, because he is alive, in our midst and we have new life. We might have done it differently; but God had other plans. Praise the Lord!
In today’s gospel Mary Magdalene begins the action. She runs to Simon and the beloved disciple to report Jesus’ missing body. She is out of the next scene so we can focus on Peter and the other disciple. After that Mary will again be the focus, along with the risen Christ, whom she meets in the garden near the tomb. What did the “other disciple” see and believe when he peered into the empty tomb? Unlike Peter, who denied Jesus, this disciple stayed with him: at the Last Supper he lay his head against Jesus’ breast; stayed with Jesus while he was dying and was the one Jesus entrusted the care of his mother.
The beloved disciple didn’t need much evidence to prompt him to faith: the rolled up cloths and the cloth that covered Christ’s head. While he believed, what was he to do with this faith? At this point Jesus had not yet appeared to Mary Magdalene and the other disciples. They hadn’t yet met the risen Christ; nor had he breathed the Spirit upon them and sent them out to witness.
“Witness” — it’s a key expression in the New Testament. In our first reading Peter, speaking for the believers, announces that now, “we are the witnesses of all he did.…” That is our relationship now to the risen Christ — to be witnesses. Scriptures tell us about the first generation of witnesses to the resurrection. Now it’s our turn. When we were baptized our parents and godparents were instructed to witness to the Christian faith they believe so that we too would come to believe.
Now by our words and example we are the witnesses to Christ. The witness of a believer in situations of trial, temptation and loving service can be a powerful proclamation to others that Christ is no longer in the tomb — it is empty. He is living and breathing his Spirit among us.
In the early church the word “witness” was the same as “martyr.” To give public witness to Christ also means to be willing to suffer for our faith. From the earliest times to this day, compelling witnesses have shown that people not only profess their faith in the risen Christ in words, but are also prepared to live their faith — even die for it. We believe that death does not have the last word, or power over us, because Christ has been raised to new life and we are united with him.