05.01.2020
We are now four weeks past Easter. It’s probably a good time for some reflection, if the current state of the world isn’t reason enough.
A month ago there were a number of commentators talking about the “Easter unlike any other . . ..”
In many respects this is an apt opening phrase. The coronavirus pandemic has led to very abrupt and significant changes in many aspects of our lives. It has eliminated the traditions and events that have marked the pace and progress of our lives. This illness has also destroyed or disrupted many of the assumptions we held about our lives and our future.
So, yes, April 12, 2020, was an Easter unlike any other . . . except, perhaps, the first one.
Consider what had happened two thousand years ago in less than a week:
- Jesus enters Jerusalem in tumultuous and joyful celebration.
- Jesus preaches positively and convincingly about the coming of God’s kingdom.
- Jesus performs miracles in front of many people.
- Jesus debates the Jewish “experts” and religious leaders and demonstrates his superior command of the Mosaic Law and the prophecies.
- Jesus prepares for the most important Jewish holiday with his followers.
- Jesus is betrayed and arrested.
- Jesus is tried and found guilty of blasphemy and treason.
- Jesus is crucified.
- Jesus died and was buried.
- Jesus’s body is gone from the tomb!
For three years this small group of “common” Jewish folks had been following Jesus around the small towns and villages in central Palestine. They were completely and unreservedly accepted by this rabbi. They watched him do things no other human had done: healing sick and wounded people, creating award-winning wine, controlling the weather. They had also listened to him explain God’s kingdom with more authority than the chief priest — like he had actually lived there.
If you’re like me, and if you had been part of that group, you would have been feeling pretty good about life and your future during the first part of that week. You may not have had all the details, but you were sure that Jesus would prevail. After all, he had every other time.
By the end of that week life was more than frayed. Mark reports that the curtain in the temple was torn from top to bottom when Jesus died. That’s a better metaphor for what life felt like early on that Sunday morning “while it was still dark.” It was bad enough that Jesus had been killed, but now his body is not in the tomb!
Mary was the person who made these discoveries first. She probably did not need any more surprises, but . . .
Jesus is alive!
Wait! What! Mary saw him die. Mary watched them place his body in the tomb Friday afternoon.
Of course the disciples did not believe her when she told them. Bodies don’t get up and leave the tomb after they’re buried. It can’t happen. The world doesn’t work that way!
Until that first Easter.
The world of Jesus’s disciples changed far more than staying home and social distancing and losing a job and not being able to go to Sunday worship because of a deadly and easily transmitted disease. They did not know what to do. They didn’t know what the Jews or the Romans might do. So they hunkered down behind a locked door.
And Jesus showed up. He told them to relax. He told them they have work to do. He told them God will give them the ability to carry out their mission. He promised to be with them — no matter what happens.
Even COVID19.