Luke 24.1-12 On the first day of the week, at early dawn, the women who had come with Jesus from Galilee came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in, they did not find the body. While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, "Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again." Then they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles. But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened.
Reflection No eloquent words nor finely formed images can begin to help us wrap our minds around resurrection. Frankly this was an enormous stumbling block for me years ago as I was discerning my call to the priesthood. What am I to think about resurrection? It is the hallmark of Christian faith and I am not sure I can swallow it? Surely I cannot preach it. I wrestled. I prayed. I waited. And then something happened.
It was an unremarkable day during which I was having an unremarkable meditation when suddenly I had an experience of Jesus that was more real than anything I have ever seen with my eyes or touched with my hands. It captivated all of my senses and hung a lamp in my heart that remains undimmed.
With no apparent previous cause, in the silence of my heart I heard Jesus say, “Follow me.” Do not ask me how I knew it was Jesus. I just did, with absolute certainty. I knew it like I know my own name and that I am standing here speaking with you. And I felt my self step behind him. Jesus said, “Come closer.” I did. And he said, “Closer.” Feeling hesitant and awkward I answered, “If I come any closer I will step on your heels.” And he said “Closer.” Ever so tentatively I stepped into his heel and vanished, except I was not gone. What was gone was my sense of separation. I could not see him. I had no sense of where I ended and he began. I just knew that he was closer to me than my own breath and that I was so close to him that there was nothing between us.
Every cell and every space of my being glimmered with knowing, “This is true.” Though I have rarely shared this story, the experience remains as real for me today as it was seventeen years ago. Unlike seventeen years ago I am no longer afraid to share this story, a story I have come to understand as an experience of death and resurrection. Death of my belief in my sole and separate self and resurrection in union and unity with Divine Presence that Christians recognize as the Christ. St. Paul explains it this way to the Galatians. “It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me.” Death and resurrection. The only thing lost in death is the belief in separation. Everything is gained. This is resurrection.
Two thousand years ago Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women followed Jesus. They heard the authority in his words. They felt the healing power of his touch. They grew weary walking with him from Galilee to Jerusalem. They watched and were horrified as their teacher, their friend was beaten, nailed to a cross and died. They saw Jospeh of Arimithea take Jesus’ body down from the cross, wrap it in linen and place it in a new stone tomb. Regardless of the circumstance, the women never stopped following Jesus.
It is no wonder that when the first glimmer of light pierces the frightful night following Jesus’ crucifixion the women, exhausted and rapt in the aroma of anticipation, immediately returned to Jesus’ tomb where they have a mystical encounter with Divine Presence.
When Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women look into the place of death they see it is not empty and with every cell and every space of their being they know that the words of the two men with dazzling clothes they mysteriously encountered in the tomb are true. Jesus is not to be found among the dead. Jesus’ place is with the living. Jesus’ place is in the hearts and minds and lives of the living who follow him.
Here is the thing. Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James and the other women expected resurrection but it was not supposed to happen now! They brought fresh herbs and spices to Jesus’ tomb believing the ritual of preparation was essential to properly prepare a person’s body so that it could begin its long journey toward a far distant resurrection. The women went to the tomb expecting to minister to the dead. They had absolutely no idea that resurrection is now. Resurrection is for the living, living in union and unity with Divine Presence, the Christ, right here, right now.
This is the wonder of the Easter story. NOW is the moment of resurrection. NOW is the moment of new life in union and unity with the risen Christ, living, breathing and loving through each of us right here, right now.
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