We know this scene. All of us one way or another know this scene. We know grief, we know sadness, we know loss, we know shock and horror and disbelief. We have been there and this is important. For we know too, especially this week after the events of Belgium, we know about trying to come to some sort of understanding about the craziness of this world and our lives. Even in all the hurt and pain we can discover incredible beauty and joy and wonder. But I am getting ahead of the story.
Those women left the comfort of their home to venture forth toward the tomb to do what exactly? The Bible isn’t clear. Anoint the body, yes, but one cannot help but wonder if they wanted to do more than that, that they hoped for something more than that, that they were looking for what all of us are looking for: answers to our deepest and darkest and most significant questions. My sense is that those women were just like any of us who have been touched by grief and sadness and know the harsh finality of death. As they watched Jesus die surely they came to the conclusion that many of us perhaps have felt as well that God seemed so distant from their lives and their grief. But maybe, just maybe, as they ventured out they carried a light with them to help them see some other things.
For in fact they discovered, of course, so much more. They found an empty tomb and that Jesus had returned to life. They discovered that their whole understanding of death and living and meaning and definitions of God had all been turned upside down. They were asked, when they arrived, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? Why do you search for the obvious when you should be looking for the mystery? Why do you limit the role of faith in your life to only guide you to certain conclusions when it really can open your eyes to a whole new light?” And these are the questions we need to ask ourselves now. The questions all of us have about how our lives connect with the mystery of the universe and how we are to use this gift we call life. Easter is all about life, new life that incorporates every part of who we are.
Some say, though, that Easter is all about death. In that because Jesus rose from the dead, if we now die but do not believe in him then our soul moves on to eternal punishment. This is a poor interpretation of Easter. Let’s join those wonderful saintly women and look a little deeper into that empty tomb. Because death could not contain the wisdom of God… because new life blossomed from darkness and finality was not exactly final… because God’s love for the world could not be narrowly defined… that empty tomb was about turning our definition of God completely upside down. Instead of an angry king-like ruler, we see through the resurrection of Jesus that instead God is one who promises that God will be with us always and forever in this life and beyond. In Easter we discover that God is not limited to our sight and our definitions and our expectations but God is seen where we thought God had no right to be seen.
I am not sure if you heard about this but this year in Dublin, Ireland a good number of the churches in the downtown core of the city will not be having services on this Easter Day. You see, the security officials have told them that it would not be safe to have regular Easter services because there are many events planned on this day to mark the centenary of the Easter Rising. The Easter Rising was a significant day of protest against the British rule and so was the start of leading to the independence of the Republic of Ireland. They expect about half a million visitors to descend on Dublin and the police are not sure if the churches will be safe. So services on Easter Day have been cancelled.
You cannot cancel Easter. To me it is like saying that for security reasons the sun will not rise or a mother cannot love her child or the wind cannot blow or the grace of God has been cancelled or oxygen should not be breathed or our souls do not need to be fed or… well you get my point. Easter cannot be cancelled because Easter is a celebration of the meaning of life in this world and the next. It is not about an event two thousand years ago in a place on the other side of the globe. It is about how we live our life each and every day and how we approach death and how we approach living. Easter causes us to think more carefully about our understanding of God. It opens to us that the death and resurrection of Jesus was not a onetime event but presented a whole new understanding of God. God is in all that we see and know. God is amongst us, with us, in us. God walks with us throughout our lifetime and even beyond that.
Just recently I watched a Ted Talk by BJ Miller. The title of the Ted Talk is “What really Matters at the End of Life.” He is quite an amazing person. A palliative and hospice care physician who lost an arm and two legs in a terrible accident while in his youth. To that he spoke very eloquently: That night began my formal relationship with death — my death — and it also began my long run as a patient. It’s a good word. It means one who suffers. So I guess we’re all patients.
He said, “For most people, the scariest thing about death isn’t being dead, it’s dying, suffering. It’s a key distinction. To get underneath this, it can be very helpful to tease out suffering which is necessary as it is, from suffering we can change. The former is a natural, essential part of life, part of the deal, and to this we are called to make space, adjust, grow. It can be really good to realize forces larger than ourselves. They bring proportionality, like a cosmic right-sizing. After my limbs were gone, that loss, for example, became fact, fixed — necessarily part of my life, and I learned that I could no more reject this fact than reject myself. It took me a while, but I learned it eventually. Now, another great thing about necessary suffering is that it is the very thing that unites caregiver and care receiver — human beings. This, we are finally realizing, is where healing happens. Yes, compassion; suffering together.”
He went on to describe the scene at the hospice after someone dies: When one of our residents dies, the mortuary men come, and as we’re wheeling the body out through the garden, heading for the gate, we pause. Anyone who wants — fellow residents, family, nurses, volunteers, the hearse drivers too, now –shares a story or a song or silence, as we sprinkle the body with flower petals. It takes a few minutes; it’s a sweet, simple parting image to usher in grief with warmth, rather than repugnance.”
He was attempting to paint a whole new picture and understanding of life and death, of awareness and hope, of peace and what I would describe as the height, depth and breadth of God’s love, not something narrow but filled with the Holy Spirit.
I wonder now if this was in fact what was going on for those women when they went to that tomb long ago. They were in fact connecting their humanity with Jesus’ humanity. They suddenly understood that indeed our lives are wrapped up in the one we name God. All of living, all of life; our breathing, our loving, our compassion, our hope, our joy is all centred on God, the source of all that we know. When we notice beauty, are deeply touched, share a meal, discover a greater depth to life and death then we are discovering what those women discovered the nearness and the wonder of God. Easter, the resurrection of Jesus, is really about how we live our lives here and now; aware of God’s love encircling and holding us, a love that is not limited just to this world but carries us forward to a world to come. It is about coming to a realization that all that we do in this world reveals to us the presence of God that blesses us and invites us to abundant life. It is about seeing that in the resurrection of Christ all has been made new and that our whole understanding of everything is wrapped up in this. You cannot cancel this but you can celebrate it in a whole variety of wonderful ways.