Unsentimental Easter--April 13, 2020

Unsentimental Easter--April 13, 2020

"The angel said to the women [at the tomb], 'Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay.  Then go quickly and tell his disciples, He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him. This is my message for you.' So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples." [Matthew 28:5-8]

There is something wonderfully urgent about the resurrection story that keeps me from getting sentimental about it.  Even after all this time, and the layers of commercialized nonsense that get piled on top of it like so much cellophane grass, the story of the women at the tomb cuts right to the chase and resists getting schmaltzy.  

Sure, my seven-year-old daughter is still primarily interested in the day because she is hoping for candy and a couple of treats (and a possible sighting of a mythical rabbit people keep telling her about, much to my chagrin), but even at that, I can get her to recall that THE Easter story is about Jesus rising from the dead.  I have a harder time at Christmas getting her to remember Jesus' birth, much less keeping the manger child at the center of her attention.  Maybe the birth story is easier to get sappy about--everybody likes a baby, after all, and babies generally don't say or do anything provocative enough to get themselves killed by the state to require a resurrection in the first place.  But the story of the empty tomb and the women who are first commissioned to spread the news of it is harder to co-opt.  Maybe there's something about being in a graveyard that keeps you from letting your vision be too rosy-colored.

Anyway, Matthew's telling of the story is particularly urgent--maybe moreso than any of the other evangelists' versions.  As he tells it, when the women find Jesus' tomb is lacking exactly one Jesus, they get told by an angel to go tell the news to the disciples--so that they, in turn, can get on the first bus back up to Galilee where they can meet Jesus there.  In other words, the message is something like, "Yes, Jesus is alive again--and if you want to catch him, you'd better high-tail it outta here and get to your appointment with him in Galilee!"  As the angel tells it, the risen Jesus is a busy fella, and he's already on a mission with lots more to do!  This is not a moment to get sentimental, and there is no time for being overcome with fear.  Instead, the women are given the news to tell to others... so that they can get moving and join Jesus in his ongoing work.  

I think I need that reminder.

Like I say, at Christmas time, we are conditioned to treat the whole month of December like a marathon of preparations, and the finish line is Christmas Day.  The story is told then, the presents are opened, and the dinner is shared.  It's an end-point for most folks--a thing you prepare for, and then once you live through it, you put your feet up and retire, as the poem puts it, "for a long winter's nap."  But the empty tomb is different.  It lands so unexpectedly, taking what everyone assumed was an ending and turning it on its side into a brand-new beginning.  The women trudge up to the tomb thinking they are going there for some kind of "closure" (as we talk about it now), and instead, they find a whole new journey has begun--and they're sent as the first runners in a very long relay-race to bring the news of Jesus everywhere.  There just isn't the time to sit around getting sentimental singing, "Mary, did you know?"  They've been sent running from the cemetery to get the word out.  And even more importantly, they've been commissioned to join up with Jesus in his mission already in progress.

I think that makes all the difference.  So often we treat the church like it is a group of old friends at a high school reunion--gathered around a table only for the purpose of remembering stuff that happened long ago, and trying to remember how great the good old days were. We act like the job of Christians is to get people to learn a sufficient number of Bible stories about what God "used to" do, or what Jesus accomplished once upon a time, as though the resurrection were the end of his career.  That's not how the angel sees it.  No--to hear the stone-sitting angel tell it, Jesus is just getting started.  He is alive and on the loose it seems, because he is too busy to be dead, like the days in the grave were an annoyance he endured so that he could get back to the work he has come for--bringing the Reign of God to all peoples and all places.  And now, the disciples are being invited to join in what Jesus is still doing--they are going to catch up with him in Galilee, it seems, because he's already got other fish to fry, and he's got to get to it.

Matthew's way of telling the story lights a fire under my feet.  He reminds me that the point of our Holy Week and Easter celebrations is not to put together an album of Jesus' Greatest Hits, but to receive our instructions for getting to work.  Catch your breath today if you need to.  Listen to the word from the heavenly messenger.  Lace up your shoes and double-tie them, sure.  But then, get moving--no sooner have we been given the Easter news and we are sent running from the graveyard with the women to tell others... so that all of us can get caught up with Jesus, who is alive and kicking... and already getting back to work bringing the world to life again.

There's just no time to be sentimental about it today.  The world is waiting for resurrection.

Lord Jesus, pull us into your Easter work today... and always.