Today is the day we celebrate the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus the Christ. Sometimes I think we, at least mainline Protestants like myself, forget that Easter is not about Christ's ascension into heaven. When we say “Christ is risen, Christ is risen indeed!” we are not talking about Christ rising into heaven. We are talking about Christ's rising from the dead. This denial of death is the ultimate exclamation of our faith in a living God. We radically claim that the execution of Jesus was not the end of the Christian story but only the beginning. Christ's presence among his disciples did not end with the death of his body. He refused to let the authorities of his world have the last word.
Jesus' story resonates in every person's life in some way or another. The story of Jesus appearing to the distraught Mary Magdalene is a story of Christ giving hope to someone in the midst of despair. To theologians who study concerns for the marginalized and oppressed, this is an important demonstration of God's love in the world. One such theologian, in response to concern for women in the world, says the goal is to “maintain, without glamorizing or glorifying suffering, that pain is not the end of the story... It is to offer and encourage a new vision.” The torture and despair Jesus suffered is not the end of the story. Jesus returns to Mary and offers the hope only God can give us in our time of need. Jesus returns to complete his story and share his vision for a better world... a world that would never forget his name, never forget his death, never forget his message.
Lest we forget his message, let me remind you. There is one above all the others that summarizes why Jesus was here, why Jesus was willing to die. Listen to the Gospel of Matthew:
34 When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, 35and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36‘Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?’ 37He said to him, ‘ “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” 38This is the greatest and first commandment. 39And a second is like it: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” 40On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.’
Love God. Love neighbor. Love self. Jesus' life and death exemplified this Great Commandment in an unforgettable way. Every parable told, every miracle performed, every sermon preached led to this moment where Christ demonstrates to us what LOVE is.
Marjorie Suchocki sums it up it in her book God, Christ, Church. She says
“On that cross we see supremely the power of love which is revealed by Jesus to the world. The seeds of the resurrection are sown on the cross as love refuses to succumb to distortion or annihilation; Jesus continues to love, through deepest pain. Does God love so strongly, even in the midst of pain? How can this intensity of the manifestation of love be exempted from the revelation of the nature of God? Through the cross we see not only that God's love is stronger than death, but that God in love endures the pain of death, and that God's love is unconquered by death.”Suchocki goes on to explain how every action we do, as beings created in the image of God, directly affect God as Christ's execution affected God. When we act out of anything other than love, we are denying the very essence of who God is, why Jesus was here, why Jesus died.
Let us also not forget that today is not just about celebrating the amazing acts of Jesus the resurrected, as if he were a great magician. It is about rejoicing and giving praise to God. Jesus may be the manifestation of God's love, the incarnation of God, but GOD is the source for this love we feel. From God flows all our altruistic desires and compassionate empathy. God is the resurrector and Jesus is the resurrected. Even death cannot stop Jesus from being with us. God conquers death and continues to manifest that ultimate love through the risen Christ.
We are not perfect beings. Far from it. It is so easy to be swallowed up in today's world of global terror and suspicion, today's world of consumerism and individualistic apathy. It is easy to be caught up in the daily concerns about schedules and paying bills and tragedies such as losing of a job or a loved one can seem to consume us. The burden of our own despair can weigh us down. Before we can even rejoice in God's unending love, we need Jesus to yell our name at us, like he did with Mary. He shouted “Mary!” as if to tell her “Wake up! In your despair you cannot even see me… the divine vision of hope standing before you!”
Has God ever had to slap you awake? You know exactly what I mean. It may have been news of an illness, a near-miss with death, the birth of a child. I know I've had God shout at me a time or two. “WAKE UP REGAN! Don't you realize all the blessings in your life? Don't you realize how important relationships and love are in this crazy scary world? Where are your priorities?” God doesn't stop there with me. And Jesus doesn't stop there either. He tells Mary to go and tell others about his resurrection... the incarnation of God's love, of the world's hope. TESTIMONY! Mary Magdalene was the first to give the good news of Christ's resurrection. And like her, we must not be silent about it, we must bear witness to God's love and hope for the world as well!
Can you imagine a world where people shared stories of blessings and miracles and love manifest instead of the endless stories of fear, violence and hatred? Have you watched television news lately? Horrific. Terrifying. Disturbing. Now, I don't recall Jesus asking Mary to forget the horrors of his death or even to dry her tears. The pain that we suffer, that we bear witness to in the world is real and strips us down to the bare essential parts of ourselves so that we can be transformed by God's love. Our vision sharpens and our hearing becomes clear. God yells “Hey you!” And we are open to receive Christ, the illumination of hope for the world, for us, for you, just as Mary was open to receive Christ that Easter morning.
So, don't let the despair weighing you down be the end of your story, but the beginning. Even death could not stop Jesus from sharing God's love. Allow the hardships in your life to be the catalyst for change. Allow the closing of one door be the opening of another. In life, there will be loss, there will be pain and there will be tears. However, there will not be a moment where you are alone. For even if you cannot see him, just as Mary could not at first see him, Christ is there. Hope and God's love is there. Allow for the transformation of the resurrection inspire you to new life. Amen.
