On this day the Lord has acted; *
we will rejoice and be glad in it.
Today is the day that we celebrate when God raised Jesus from a violent and unjust death to life eternal. Jesus was not extinguished by the forces of unrestrained power nor contained by a grave. Instead just as he told his followers, he would be crucified and we would be raised to new life. He comes back to them in love reminding all who listen and believe that God’s love is everlasting, that God’s mercy endures forever, that nothing can separate us from God’s promise of eternal grace. Despite this being an incredible claim, this is who we are and this is where we stand as people who follow the resurrected Christ.
The Hebrew people lived for generations worshipping God who liberated them from slavery, who provided for them in their time in the wilderness, who led them as God’s beloved children into God’s promise of life and land. But they were a small nation, bordered by massive and ferocious neighbors. They have been conquered by one of them, the Babylonians, and forced from their homes, from their people, and from the temple that is the center of their identity as God’s chosen. At the hands of the Babylonians, in a far-off land they watch as their leaders are executed and their way of life reduced to captivity under the boot of a deadly force. The Hebrew people living in exile believe they have been abandoned by God.
Their world has been upended. Everything they knew has been taken. They look into an interminable darkness and see nothing but subjugation and hopelessness. But into this darkness, God sends the prophet Jeremiah–reminding them that God loves them with an everlasting love and God’s faithfulness continues.
This is not a prediction of their future, but a promise made by the One whose promises can be trusted. Despite the present evidence, God will restore Israel’s life. In the poetic threefold “again” the break will be overcome and “again” there will be building and restoration. “Again” they shall take up their tambourines and go forth in the dance of merrymakers.” “Again” they shall “plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria and all shall enjoy the fruit.” This is because of the resolve of God’s own heart. God guarantees restoration and what God says, God will do. God’s promise of new life can be trusted.
We live in a time in this world that can best be described as Good Friday. All around us, the reign of violence and brutal oppression seems to be without end. Incompetence, dishonesty, and manipulation flood us with fear. And the very institutions that in the past seemed to be sources of strength that incrementally helped us move in the direction of justice for all, are now rendered paralyzed by bitter partisanship and their seeming availability for purchase by the highest bidder.
As Christians, we see this injustice and brutality on this Easter Day and we like Mary have trouble sleeping and so go looking for something that will help us make sense of senselessness, help us find direction on paths devoid of light, seeking a place to hold on to in our grief.
Easter comes to us and reminds us that as followers of the resurrected Christ, in facing the contradiction between the word of promise and the experienced reality of suffering and death, in faith we take a stand on hope. In faith, we hold on to God’s promise that eternal life does not limit itself to some imagined heavenly bliss, but to the restoration of this earth and this humanity for which Jesus died. This hope does not ignore reality nor step over the hard truths. This hope, looking squarely at the Christ who was raised from suffering and a god-forsaken death, offers us the prospect that we have nothing to fear, that nothing can truly oppress us, and that in true freedom we can place our hope on Christ.
But Easter also means that we can never reconcile ourselves with the laws and limitations of this world, neither with the inevitability of death nor with the evil that continuously causes suffering. Our hope in Christ is found in our protest against these forces. The risen Christ must be declared the enemy not only of death, but of anything in the world that supports or causes death in any of its forms. This is why faith that grows into hope never leads to rest, but to unrest; never leads to patience, but to impatience. It does not lead to calm and quiet hearts, but to hearts where a restless longing is a constant state. Those of us who hope in Christ cannot put up with reality as it is, but begin to suffer under it, to contradict it. Peace with God means conflict with the world, for the vision of God’s promised future constantly irritates against the flesh of our unfulfilled present.
Mary comes to the garden before dawn seeking to draw close to her promised future. She has followed Jesus through his ministry and now his capture, humiliation, and crucifixion by the Roman authorities. She sees him as he dies on the cross. She has watched as his lifeless body is removed and placed in the tomb. But her faith and her love call to her to continue to ‘come and see.’ The reality of her experience is in conflict with Jesus’ promise that he would always be with her.
Finding the tomb empty, she assumes what would be the obvious truth—someone has stolen the body. Running for help, her fears are only confirmed by Peter and another disciple who once they have seen the empty tomb, we are told, go back home. But Mary stays. Looking inside the tomb she sees brilliant figures who question her experience. “Woman, why are you weeping?” Turning in anguish she sees someone that she believes to be a gardener. But then, he speaks her name. At that moment, her world as she knew it to be– is broken open, she recognizes the risen Christ, she hears the voice of her shepherd. In Christ’s resurrection, the ironclad grasp of death and suffering, humiliation and powerlessness, and the supremacy of evil are destroyed.
Before resurrection, we might have to be reconciled to things as they are. But in God raising Christ to new life, we cannot be reconciled.
Easter requires a demand as well as a promise. A demand that we pledge our loyalty to the risen one. That means an end to all loyalties to all people and all institutions that crucify. There can be no complacency, nor harmony, neither willing nor reluctant, to the way things are. And this is because of our relentless hope. This hope keeps us unreconciled until the great day when all of God’s promises are fulfilled. It keeps us agitating, questioning, campaigning, knowing that despite the present evidence, God will restore this life.
“Again” the break will be overcome. “Again” there will be building and restoration. “Again” all shall take up their tambourines and go forth in the dance of merrymakers.” “Again” all shall “plant vineyards and all shall enjoy the fruit.” This is because of the resolve of God’s own heart. This is God’s promise. God guarantees restoration and what God says, God will do. God who loves us with an everlasting love, can be trusted
Until that great day, the church of Jesus Christ must be a constant disruption in the world. Until that great day, the church of Jesus Christ must be the source of new impulses towards the establishment of freedom, justice, righteousness, and the flourishing of all creation. In the light and the truth of the resurrected Christ, this is our true nature. We like the prophets, Mary and the disciples must be witnesses to and active participants in the life that will never be extinguished by death, the love that always overcomes hate, the peace that will flourish on earth, and through our hope in the risen Christ, we walk towards God’s promised future that is even now being realized.
Alleluia Christ is risen, the Lord is risen indeed Alleluia.