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April 4, l999
In John's telling of the first Easter it's Mary Magdalene who goes early and first to the tomb to discover the stone sealing the tomb had been rolled aside. She assumes the worst and runs back to the disciples and reports that "they have taken his body away." Two disciples, Peter and another, run back to the tomb where they observe that the death clothes remain undisturbed as if the body of Jesus just slid effortlessly from them. They observe that the head bindings have been neatly bundled. They know that something is very awry but they, too, are upset - Life is not beautiful for these friends of Jesus because not one of them was expecting to ever see him again. Meanwhile, Mary is waiting outside the tomb. And she is weeping. Two figures appear to her and ask her why she is weeping. BECAUSE THEY HAVE TAKEN THE BODY OF MY LORD AWAY AND I DON'T KNOW WHERE. She keeps on crying. Then Jesus appears to her but in such a strange form that she mistakes him for the cemetery caretaker. Jesus also asks why she is crying: Mary begs the stranger to tell her where the body has been taken. Then Jesus speaks her name, MARY. And she recognizes him. This first talk between the Resurrected Jesus and Mary is one in a series. Later, he stopped by to see the disciples. He walked with two to Emmaus. Much later he revisits the disciples when Thomas, who had been absent from Jerusalem, is present. Jesus appears here; he appears there; all of these appearances have elements of surprise and drama because no one was expecting to ever see him again. If these half dozen appearances were the only testimony to the Resurrected Jesus, I doubt this congregation or any other would be gathering this Easter only on the power of memory of these few Resurrection experiences back them. . But here we are 2,000 years nearly later celebrating Easter. Something happened to change the experience of the Resurrected Jesus from a few and dramatic meetings way back then to the reality of the always available spiritual presence of Jesus to his people. This was because of Jesus' gift of the Holy Spirit to the Church, a gift highly personalized in John's Gospel when at his final appearance Jesus literally breathes upon the disciples imparting to them the Holy Spirit. This change is in part because all succeeding generations of Christians have experienced the Holy Spirit in one way or another. And all these experiences are like the initial visits of Jesus in these ways: Jesus comes to us when we do not expect him to visit; Jesus comes to us when we most need him to be with us. On Easter it is not only the remembrance of that first Easter we celebrate but the experience that the Resurrected Christ is with His Church today. The widely acclaimed Italian film by the title LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL has also had numerous critics who simply couldn't accept the idea that life in a concentration camp could be treated humorously. To try to introduce lightness and mirth into the holocaust horror has seemed to many both a sacrilege and an impossibility, notwithstanding the film's ambition to do just that. The premise of the film is a young Italian Jewish father is sent with his six-year-old son to Belsen Belsen. His son has a remarkable love of games and a stunning ability to hide and keep quiet, as many games require. The father interprets the concentration camp experience as a long playing game in which if the son keeps quiet, is not discovered by the camp guards, and does not complain, he will acquire the greatest number of points and eventually win. When he wins he will be able to leave the camp. To make the game believable to his son the father buffoons and mocks and caricatures many of the more grotesque camp officials and their insane rules. His madcap antics introduce the humor which audiences have loved and critics have dismissed. The film proclaims that life, even in a concentration camp, can be LIFE CAN BE BEAUTIFUL. We can listen to the critics for our Resurrection faith honors the tragic human experience. After all, Christ's Resurrection was preceded by his unjust crucifixion. Faith also honors the voice of skepticism when it arises from the tragic sense of life. Life was anything but beautiful for Jesus' friends after his death. They were lamenting, like Mary, and hiding in fear. They never expected to see Jesus again and, when they did, his appearance forced the reversal of their expectations about their lives. Easter is the divine example of God reversing the flow of tears and of good reemerging from the most shadowed of all places, the tomb. In the film LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL the little boy does survive to emerge from the tomb of that concentration camp. Most others, including his father do not survive. The Resurrection event affirms that God insists that life will be beautiful for those who believe in Him. There are indeed some elements of humor in the several Resurrection appearances particularly in the confusion about the identity of Jesus. All of Jesus' friends want to weep, stay confused, and Jesus wants them to rejoice. Though Jesus never uses the phrase, LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL, that phrase seems natural to him in his reassurance to his grieving and disoriented friends. Oh, Mary, don't you weep, don't you mourn! Life is beautiful! Jesus by his very death affirmed his Heavenly Father's divine NEVERTHELESS would be, like a power stamp of cancellation, pressed upon the tears of his suffering and ours. NEVERTHELESS, God will not let Jesus die for nothing. NEVERTHELESS, God will not let the circumstances and powers that would keep us in tears and chains to triumph. NEVERTHELESS, THE TOMB IS EMPTY AND LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL. Jesus promised to his followers that he would return but none understood that promise. Only when it happened, were the tearful and fearful empowered to be witnesses to His continuing presence among them. We celebrate his Resurrection and the ultimate defeat of the forces of darkness today in part by standing on Jesus' promises about his Resurrection and his awaited Return, and in part on the witnesses to his Resurrection and in part on our own faith experience that Christ Lives and that he is never far from those who through the power of the Holy Spirit call upon Jesus to come and be with them. Skeptics will persist in saying it's all nonsense. Just as no beauty and no love of life could come from the experience of life in a concentration camp, so no living presence can come forth from an empty tomb. We may wonder why Jesus in order to cut off the skeptics did not appear to his enemies: to Herod and Pontius Pilate and the High Priest Caiphas. Would that not have made the Resurrection intelligible and unassailable to the most hardened skeptics of succeeding generations? Frankly, I doubt it. Surely the main point of God's plan in resurrecting Jesus was not to answer and quiet his critics but to empower and motivate Jesus' friends to live their lives fully and to draw upon their faith in working for the Kingdom. Neither the succession of doubt, nor even the ending of tragedy, guarantee advance of God's Kingdom. That happens because faith in Jesus goes to work. And Jesus went to work. The symbol for Easter is an empty tomb because Jesus got up and got out. He told his followers that he was going before them. Just as they would never find him in the tomb, they would not find him in any confines of crimped faith. Because of that promise that Jesus is always out ahead of us in Kingdom work this must follow for us: Easter calls us to experience the resurrection in our own lives. And our ability to proclaim LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL is a witness to that personal experience. Like the disciples we need to move on and out from fears that cling to us, like the death clothes wanted to stay wrapped about Jesus. Jesus did not hang around the tomb, nor did he hang out very long with the disciples: Instead, he said he was going ahead of them and they would encounter him when they moved ahead on their own. But he's risen. He's ahead of us. He's beckoning us to follow him. He is bringing in the Kingdom of God in the next millenium and calling to us: Don't cry back there…come on with me. Jesus is wherever the next turning on the road to the Kingdom of God is. The encounter with Christ liberates something in us, a power we did not know we had, a hope, a capacity for life, a resilience, and ability to bounce back when we thought we were completely defeated, a capacity to grow and change, a power of creative transformation….the capacity to proclaim LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL.
Pastor Gene Preston
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The Rev. Gene R.Preston14th Floor, Blk 36, Lower Baguio Villa Tel : 25516161 Fax: 25512114E-mail : gpreston@netvigator.com |
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