When confronted with a major disappointment, when our hopes and dreams are dashed on the rock of reality, others might say, ‘Well, what can you expect?’
The women on Easter morning expected to find a smelling body. The disciples were smelling the decay of lives in disappointment as they reflect on the one who seemed so connected to God and was abandoned by God. He even convinced them that his way of seeing the world and seeing people was the right way. And this happens! And what would happen to them now? They could go home to their fishing and admit they mistakenly followed a dreamer who left them disillusioned.
The women did not get what they expected. They found no smelly decaying body but the presence of the one they had known and loved, who said, as he always did: ‘Do not be afraid’. And the disillusioned disciples would receive a ministry to proclaim the presence of love and life in the world. It changed them and the world forever. It is interesting that the early community seemed to only preach Jesus' rising from the dead because everything else seemed irrelevant and unimportant alongside the news that death was not the last word and the Reign that Jesus preaching was breaking in. Only later did it become obsessed with finding little instructions for life’s every little problem with lots of dos and don’ts which caused people to fear again for themselves and become irresponsible about this world by focussing on a future world.
Chocolat – film [about Lent and chocolate]. It is set in a little French village where everyone and everything is in its right place. Tranquility is the supreme value. The status quo must not be disturbed. If you see something, look away. The village is dominated by a mayor who knows what is good for everyone. The mayor even corrects and rewrites the parish priest’s homilies. Church attendance is obligatory However, a woman and her daughter arrive in the village to set up a chocolate shop – during Lent. They are not churchgoers. The woman is a single mother. The mayor spurns them and gets the villagers to do the same. But she seduces the curious villagers who peer through the shop window [remember, it is Lent] by inviting them to come in and taste her delicious chocolates. This awakens in them the ancient mysterious desire for connection, intimacy, and inclusiveness. A stone has been rolled back and a spirit of life breaks through into that community. A spirit of ‘playful’ resistance occurs when mother and daughter help person after person reawaken a sense of connectedness which is based on love rather than fear. She reawakens in them a sense of their beautiful humanity. It enables them to begin to do life differently. Jesus does this for us.
Today’s gospel begins in an atmosphere of darkness, oppression. It is the darkness of the empty tomb; the darkness of not knowing; the darkness of loss; the darkness of shock at seeing Jesus' capture, torture and death. This darkness persists until the ‘other disciple’ entered the tomb, ‘saw and believed.’
What can we see? Can we see things we usually do not? Do we see the Christ in the poor and suffering around us? Do we see that winning and power are not the solutions to every problem or confrontation? Do we recognise that those who have lost much in life have a story to tell that others have not experience? Do we hear from those who are least privileged stories that no one else would ever know? Do we see that being able to have all we want does not mean we should? Do we see that people in other parts of the world suffer because of our personal and national excesses? Do we see God’s reign, God’s seduction, in the little efforts to change our world Do we see that letting go of our fear is a way of entering new life?
‘Well, what did you expect?’ Jesus is risen – and so are we. Jesus is not in the tomb. But will we leave our tombs; leave behind what entombs us – fear, preciousness, self-centredness. New life has been set loose in the world and possibilities for change are available to us. It depends on us to accept it.
It means that we act differently: to see that life is about slow growth, not perfection; a reckless love of the unlovable; traveling through life with new insight, with new people, in new ways. Important question: will we, touched by Jesus, now rise and do life differently?
There are many things which call forth our passion: injustices to redress; social and moral outrages that cannot be ignored. Though always with us, it is no excuse for tolerating them. Christianity’s strength is seen in its ability to build a barrier against hatred in our hearts. We can relieve the world of a little hatred that will otherwise almost surely contribute to the suffering and pain in others.
Jesus’ prayer for his persecutors is a model of how to do life differently in the face of hatred. His rising puts us in touch with a world where it is no longer necessary to settle scores. We have seen the disastrous outcomes when people keep settling scores in the old ways: Iraq; the Balkans; Middle East; even our neighbours who we might not speak with.
People still live with vilification, racism, sexism, prejudice and other forms of violence and we risk just taking it for granted and keeping silent, looking away. We can accept lies of systems and institutions that preach themselves rather than challenging them. In these weeks before Easter [Lent] we have been called again beyond private religion to the prophetic; beyond perfectionism to seeking true growth; beyond mere ritual to witness; beyond religion-for-show to religion-for-real and deep spirituality.
The empty tomb alone proves nothing but we can acknowledge the presence of Jesus everywhere. God and Jesus cannot be locked up. Resurrection invites us to find God by being open to our world; by making connections; by allowing ourselves to be surprised by God in places and in ways we never thought possible. We are invited to allow others – like those women at the tomb, those whom we might refuse to consider - to open our hearts to things we do not want to hear. Let us allow God’s voice to be released in everyone, everywhere. So, let go of the fears that protect us from one another – reach out to the other: the Muslim, the child who needs, support, the homeless, the unemployed, the Indigenous person, the person living with mental illness, the stranger, the gay and lesbian. Our attitude and action leads to removing stones from their graves.
‘Well, what did you expect?’ Jesus lives! Let us do resurrection by insisting on the things of life, justice and peace. Will we rise and resist the deadening grip of the world's burnt-out systems and be open to the light-giving presence of God. These are hints of resurrection in our daily lives. Mary's stubborn commitment to give witness to her community's mourning and grief is inspirational. As the late Dorothee Söelle put it:
"Resurrection is the sign of a power that changes life and breaks its subservience to and cooperation with death. The resurrection has need of witnesses, for it does not function here for the sake of Jesus' return to his father, but for the sake of liberation of all people from fear and submission to the powers of death."
We might ourselves say, or heard other people say, ‘I will not collaborate in my own oppression’. I do not have to list the groups of people.
‘Well, what did you expect?’ This can be life changing! We have resurrection moments in our lives. Do we recognise them when we absorb animosity? Refuse to be violent in speech and behaviour in the face of violence? Hope in the face of despair? Live with depression and still come through? Be faithful where faithlessness might be understood? Let go of hurts in order to begin the process of forgiveness? Resist what is contrary to life? We glimpse resurrection whenever people break through prejudice and fear; attempt reconciliation and make bonds of friendship across cultural divides; when we question institutions, country and church - when they fall short of justice, love and compassion; when we question and challenge racism, inequality or unfair practices in the workplace, war, detention of children, women and men who seek our protection. The tomb is not the final solution.
Why do you seek the living among the dead? The Easter question provokes us: how is it that we have thought that the institutions of death will provide us with new life? Where did we get the idea that by embracing and blessing the death of others we find new life for ourselves?
This was Caesar’s solution. Pilate says send in the troops. It is still the solution of the powers today. Israel is adopting it in Gaza and China in Tibet. The USA sends in the marines, or better those of client states. Kill the one who objects, the rebel, the conscientious objector, the Jew, the Arab, the Salvadoran, the Filipino, the Iraqi, the Turk. Lynch the black person, drown the homosexual, rape the resister, deport the immigrant and the illegal alien. Quarantine the person living with AIDS; gaol the drug addict. Silence dissent by vilification or anti-terror laws or cutting funding to charities and research projects.
‘Well, what did you expect?’ You roll away the stones that prevent people from coming out of their graves – they begin to live. They do things differently. The resurrection introduces us to an uncomfortable newness in relationships and social arrangements. We want it and dread it. The call is to risk new life – and help others risk it. Let others roll away the stone… The resurrection stories show us the importance of the ordinary things of life. Jesus shows us that his wounds remain visible in his body; that whatever our wounds, they are not taken away, but become sources of hope to others. We can still feel the world’s pains and the pains of our family and friends.
This is the 8th day of Creation: it is about new creation; a new earth; new relationships; a new and united humanity. God's image is imprinted on us. It begins with God saying to us, "I love you. Where love is, I am. Where I am is home." God has fallen in love with you and wants you to come home.
Today shows us how much we are remembered by God; how much God wants to intervene in our lives and have a place in our hearts. The death of Jesus revealed how powerful we humans are. We did what we wanted with him. But today reveals how powerful God is and what joy God is holding out for us as we ‘see and believe’ and come to ‘understand the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead’. ‘Well, what else did you expect?’
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