Easter Morning: I Am With You Always 2023
Another tremblor! Aftershocks from Friday’s earthquake when
the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. Mary Magdelene
and the other Mary remembered how rocks were split, the tombs on the Mount of
Olives were opened. Many of the saints came out of their tombs on the mount so
as to be box seats when the messiah would come! Imagine! Those, who were
formerly dead, were now wandering the streets! As the earth shakes again, an
angel appears. His appearance was like lightning and his clothing white as
snow. For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men. The angel
rolls away the rolling stone Joseph of Arimathea had rolled over the entrance
of the tomb. Magdalene and the other Mary had been there when the guards had
arrived to secure the tomb. Now the guards are lying, scattered about like dead
men. Like so many bowling pins. The women, however, are rock steady as the
angel seeks to assure them, “Do not be afraid! He has been raised…he has been
raised!”
Alleluia, Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed,
Alleluia!
Have you ever wondered? Matthew has given meticulous detail
of every major event so far: at Jesus’s birth, the slaughter in Bethlehem, that
day on the mount of the Transfiguration, the voice from the heavens, the moment
he dies on a cross. Then comes the most significant moment of the entire story;
he has been raised; the tomb is empty; and not one single detail of just how
that happens. There were guards posted there ever since Friday. Mary Magdelene
and the other Mary were there then, and now. Yet, Jesus had come out of that
tomb. Evidently, it was not the conventional way of rolling away the stone and
walking out. The only clue is that once again, as at the Sea of Reeds; once
again as in Babylon; the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Jesus; the Lord
God of Sarah, Rebekkah, Leah, Rachel, Tamar, Rahab and Ruth, YHWH had come to
the rescue. He has been raised means that YHWH, the voice from the burning bush
was at work once again!
Alleluia, Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed,
Alleluia!
The messenger announces that these two women have an
important assignment. They are to announce the news to the rest of Jesus’s
followers. They are to repeat the Good News: He has been raised and is going
before us to Galilee where he will meet with us all! There we will see him! The
messenger in dazzling white clothes appoints the two women as the first two
Apostles – those who are sent to proclaim the Good News. And off they go in a
mixture of fear and great joy! They are running as fast as they can when
suddenly. He. Is. There. Right. In. Front. Of them. In the road!
Alleluia, Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed,
Alleluia!
“Greetings!” says he! They fall before him, grab his feet,
and worship him. He has been raised somehow, and he still has feet! This is no
vision. This is no ghost or apparition. Mary Magdelene and the other Mary are
holding on to his feet for dear life! When had he left the tomb? How did he get
here in the middle of the road? How did all those dead folks come out of the
tombs and begin wandering the streets of Jerusalem? Is that what he has been
doing ever since Joseph had placed him in the tomb? Raising all the dead in the
universal resurrection much of Israel had been expecting? Had they been raised
with him? Or, by him?
Alleluia, Christ is risen! The
Lord is risen indeed, Alleluia!
It had to be quite a shock for the Empire of escalating
violence to learn that even crucifixion could not put an end to his movement of
the non-violent love of the Father. It continues to boggle the mind to this
day. Think of our past. Ponder our futures as a species on an ailing planet. A
species that never creates a weapon it does not use, or invent one weaker than what
it replaces. Then here comes a kingdom of God, an atypical kingdom, that does
not allow for violent “fighting” to free Jesus from execution. He tells Peter
to put away his sword at the very hint of fighting back. This story of Crucifixion
and Resurrection, however, is more than a story of Jesus clashing with Pontious
Pilate, but about a hopeful vision and option for humanity to find a way out of
the violence-based civilization we have created for ourselves. Jesus did not
rise alone. The story means to challenge our species to redeem our world and
save the earth by transcending the escalating violence we create as our normal human
trajectory. Jesus being raised from the dead proclaims that non-violent
resistance alone is capable of saving us from the spiral of inevitable
self-destruction. [i]
Alleluia, Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed,
Alleluia!
Mary and the other Mary are still holding on. Snap out of
it, he says! Let go, he says! You must deliver the message to my brothers and
sisters to meet me in Galilee! Hurry now! Tempus fugit! Time’s a-fleeting! And
off they run! How difficult it must have been to let go of him, there in the
middle of the road. The one who had transformed their lives forever! He who had
taught them that life need not be a life of escalating violence. That life
could be a life of his Father’s love. That life can be other than what it is –
than what it appears to be. Just as he had freed these two women and given them
new purpose, new life, he now had a message for all of those who choose to walk
in The Way of God’s eternal love for all. And when he gets to Galilee, and all
the sisters and brothers who had also had their lives transformed were once
again sitting at his feet, he made them a promise that has never been broken: “Teach
others to obey everything I have taught you. And remember, I am with you
always, to the end of the age.”
Alleluia, Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed, Alleluia!
It was about this time of year in 1984 that I was pondering
this promise. There was a little children’s chalk board in the kitchen to leave
notes like, “I’ll be home from Church around 7:00 PM.” I cleared the board and
wrote in ever-ephemeral chalk, “Lo! I am with you always to the end of the age.”
I stared at it for a while. I went and did some other things. Came back and
looked at it again. Months later I packed it up when we moved to another house.
And then to Maryland. And then to Connecticut. And back to Maryland, to
Sykesville. I unpacked the box and there it was, the chalk undisturbed. Its
message was clear. It’s been hanging in the basement since 1995. Whenever I
forget his final promise that day in Galilee with the women and men who spread
out and proclaimed the Good News of Jesus, it remains. Whenever we may think we
are through with him, it turns out he is never through with us. He is here. He is
with us. All of us. All the time. He is with us now until the end of the age.
This is why we say:
Alleluia, Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed,
Alleluia!
We need to thank Mary Magdelene and the other Mary for
letting go of Jesus and following through on their appointed role as Apostles.
Who is this other Mary anyway? Again, a strange lapse in detail by Matthew. Unless.
Unless she represents us. You and me. Like these two women, we have been raised
to be Apostles – those who are sent to proclaim the Good News!
He is here. He is with us. Always. To the end of the age! We
are God’s Beloved! God is well pleased with us. Now. And forever. and ever!
Amen!
Alleluia, Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed,
Alleluia!
Alleluia, Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed,
Alleluia!
Alleluia, Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed,
Alleluia!
And so are we! So are we!
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