EASTER A, March 23, 2008

"Alleluia! Christ is risen!" (pause) "The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!" We say that so easily, so readily, do we not? Those words say it all, say what Easter is all about and yet say more that we know, more than we will ever know until eternity. Yet so does the event we just heard in the Gospel. In so many ways while Easter happened once for all, this Gospel scene is repeated over and over again in our lives. In so many ways we experience what Mary, Peter and John did that first Easter morning.

I wonder, for instance what these three must have been thinking when they peered into that empty tomb. It is difficult, if not impossible, for any one of us today to put ourselves in their places. Yet, like them we have all experienced those times when questions arose and answers were not to be found. We know some of what they might/must have been thinking when they discovered that the tomb was empty and the body of Jesus gone, obviously stolen, but for what reason they had no idea.

As with Peter, John and Mary in this Gospel incident, there have been and will continue to be times in our lives when we are desperately wondering what in the world is going on, what we are to make of it and how we are to respond. This Easter event reminds us that there will always be questions and that the answers will come, slowly, assuredly, but sometimes not to our liking or to our complete understanding. They will come, however, of that we can be sure. That’s the first point.

Not only do the answers to our faith questions come slowly but so does our faith itself. That’s the second point. That is why I don’t buy two statements in John’s recounting of this event. The first is his assertion that he peered into that empty tomb and immediately believed. Believed what? Believed that the tomb was empty? Believed that Jesus had risen from the dead? Believed that Jesus was/is the Son of God? What exactly did John instantly believe after one quick look into the empty tomb? It strikes me this assertion is a little too self-serving. That’s the first fact I don’t buy.

I also don’t buy the statement that these two men, after seeing the tomb empty, having no idea where the body was, calmly went home. They just went home! Why were they not in a panic? Why did they not try to find someone who knew what had happened? Why did the just go home and act as if nothing happened when surely something did? Would any one of us act as nonchalant as Peter and John? I don’t think so and that is why I don’t buy that, either.

But I do believe. I believe the tomb was empty. I believe that Jesus rose from the dead. My faith did not come in an instant or because someone told me the Gospel story and all at once it all made sense. It didn’t and some of it still doesn’t. My faith has come gradually over time and is much more solid than when I first believed. And while I am often rather nonchalant about my faith, some of the time it excites me and I need to tell others about it. I just can’t go home and act as if nothing happened.

It is easy, of course, to nit pick the Gospel stories, as I just did. Whether John was being self-serving or not is really not the issue. Nor is how he and Peter reacted afterwards. They did what they did. John was John. Peter was Peter. They responded the way they did. They were there. How we might have responded had we been there is not even an issue. We were not.

The Easter issue is how we respond to the story of the empty tomb, how you and I respond in and through our lives. That is always the Gospel issue: how we apply what we read there to our own lives and not how those who were there did. They did what their faith impelled them to do. We must do what our faith impels us to do. We will not have to answer for Peter’s or John’s response to the Gospel. We will have to answer for our own response both to our God and to ourselves. That’s the third point of this Easter story.

Then there is Mary. Sometimes, as they say, we cannot see the forest for the trees, not because we are dense but because we simply are not looking for a forest and do not expect to see a forest even if we are truly in the very midst of one. Such it was with Mary. She did not see Jesus even when she looked him in the eye because she did not expect to see Jesus. Jesus was dead. Who this man was she did not know. Even if he looked like Jesus, he certainly was not Jesus.

Mary, it is true, was in a panic. Someone had obviously moved Jesus’ body and never told anyone about it. She had come to mourn and her mourning was now made even more painful because of what she found – or rather what she did not find. Then, in an instant, her grief vanished and she was filled with joy because Jesus, whom she knew had died and been buried, was now standing before her very much alive.

One can only imagine the emotional roller coaster Mary rode – from the depths of despair to the heights of ecstasy. Perhaps no other person in history has ever experienced what this one woman did. The others who later encountered the resurrected Jesus at least had advanced warning that he had been raised from the dead and were able to prepare themselves to experience Jesus in a new and different way; but it was not so with Mary. The truth is that we cannot even do that. We cannot possibly imagine what she felt.

Perhaps what we can all take from this event is that God surprises each one of us in many ways, unexpected ways, ways we never, even in our wildest dreams could have imagined. Miracles large and small happen every day and they happen to us. It does not matter that they may not be of the type and kind as this one. What matters is that when we least expect it, God surprises us with God’s grace and power.

The Easter event reminds us that there will always be questions when it comes to matters of faith. It reminds us that our faith comes slowly, grows daily, ebbs and flows, given our humanness and sinfulness. And the Easter event reminds us that God constantly surprises us with new life, good news even amidst all the bad news, and often when we least expect it. That’s the fourth point.

And finally, the fifth point, when we encounter that moment of truth, when everything, at least in the moment makes sense, when our faith is at its greatest, when we have truly experienced an Easter-like moment, like Mary we want to hold on to that moment forever. Whether those times are with a special person in our life or in a very special place, whether it is a moment of great love or exhilaration, whether it is a moment of truth, we all experience them and wish we could do something to make them, if not last forever, at least last much longer.

But we cannot. We have to let go. But those moments, even when they are past, are not gone forever. They remain with us and remain a part of us. Yes, the memories fade and the feelings of the moment cannot be recaptured, but they are not lost. The truth is that, like Mary, Peter and John, whether they realized it or not, we, whether we realize it or not, are changed and changed for the better because of those moments and we are eternally thankful for the privilege of being allowed to experience them.

Whether you or I remember any of the points of this Easter story, the only point, the real point, is the good news, the Easter news. That news is that, even though moments of fear, anguish, doubt and despair will still be part of our lives just as they were for Mary, Peter and John when they peered into that empty tomb – the good news, the best news, the Easter news, the story and promise of Easter is that many more such Easter moments, more resurrections to new life are coming, perhaps even today. Happy Easter!