The word is out. The tomb is empty. Mary Magdalene has seen it. The promise of the Lord to rise on the third day seems to be coming true. Simon Peter and the beloved disciple run to the empty tomb and see neatly folded and rolled up burial cloths. The evangelist reports that the beloved disciple “saw and believed.” My guess is that what he believed on seeing was “This changes everything.” All of the violence and power of the mightiest empire in the world could not keep Jesus down. The forgiveness and compassion that Jesus showed in life have been vindicated as greater than all that the world threw at him. We don’t listen to his words merely because they are inviting and attractive but because they have been proven true. This changes everything. The Risen Jesus demonstrates that even the worst that can happen to someone in life, the worst of pain and suffering, death itself, does not get the last word. No wonder we say our Hosannas. No wonder that we are Easter people and Alleluia is our song. As the beloved disciple contemplated the meaning of the empty tomb, the reality of Jesus risen from the dead, he had to think “this changes everything.”
But nothing changed. Or maybe better, no one changed. Peter and the disciple were still afraid so they went back to the upper room and locked the door. Thomas continued holding onto his skeptical attitude. No one paid any mind to the report of Mary Magdalene and other women that they had seen the Lord because, well, after all they were women. Two people traveling toward Emmaus could pine nostalgic for the good old days when they got to walk the dusty roads of Galilee with Jesus. And a young Pharisee, Saul of Tarsus, became even more convinced that he was right and everyone else was wrong. Why if everything changed at the Resurrection does it look like everyone was still the same? Of course, that is not the end of the story. The change does come. It comes as a result of encountering Jesus. Peter and the rest of the disciples unlock those fear-filled doors because they meet the Risen Jesus. Thomas changes from a doubter to a believer when Jesus is so close he can touch him. The two walking travelers change from people in despair into witnesses of hope when they recognize the Risen Lord in the breaking of the bread. And Saul changes into Paul after his road-side encounter with Risen Jesus on the way to Damascus. Everything changes. Everyone changes after Easter.
That old, old story is our story as well. We gather on this Easter Sunday morning because we too have heard the good news of the Resurrection. We sing our Easter songs. We wear our Easter finery. We smell our Easter flowers. We eat our Easter meal. Alleluia. Jesus Christ is Risen Today, our triumphant holy day. The event of Easter changes everything – changes our understanding of life and death, of sickness and health, of good times and bad. And yet, and yet we find ourselves ensnared in the same old, same old. The same fears, the same worries, the same anxieties, the same cares, the same troubles, the same griefs are here on Easter Sunday as were there on Saturday. For the Resurrection to change not only everything out there but everyone in here we will need to have an experience like those first followers. We must encounter the Risen Jesus.
Okay. How? How in our day and time can we have an encounter like Peter and Mary Magdalene and all the rest? This is what the epistle says to do: “Think of what is above, not of what is on earth.” In other words, keep your eye on the prize. What keeps us from encountering Jesus is that we’re not looking at things properly. Our attention tends to drift into getting the right job or meeting the right person or having the proper income. The Biblical teaching is that we need to shift our focus to God and the things of God and all these other things will be given us besides. When we focus on what is above we hear the voice of God say to us, “you are my beloved. I am well pleased with you.” No longer do we need to prove ourselves, or make something of ourselves, or achieve some status. No, we already possess an infinite, an eternal value. This changes our self-image so that we understand that Jesus wishes to come to us, to share life with us, to be with us; after all, we are fearfully, wonderfully made. All we need do is be available in prayer and he will come.
When we focus on what is above we notice that everyone we meet is precious in God’s sight. Certainly there are some bad actors out there but that is just because they don’t understand who God made them to be. Seeing them as God sees them changes the perception we have of the people in our lives. It is not us versus them. It is not you do your thing and I do mine. It is not necessary to surround myself with people who look like me, think like me, act like me. Considering others in terms of what is above causes us to realize we are all brothers and sisters. And when we risk encountering them in a spirit of hospitable welcome, Jesus slips in among them.
Thinking about what is above inevitably involves thinking about love since God is love. All the loves that we know in life are the foretaste and promise of the divine love toward which we are called. When we have the eyes to see, every encounter of love is tinged with God’s grace and glory. Remember that at the Last Supper Jesus said to his disciples, “I call you friends… It was not you who chose me, it was I who chose you.” All of those relationships of love provide the lens for an encounter with Jesus, an encounter that will last for all eternity.
The Resurrection changes everything. For that reason it is not ancient history, a report about something that happened to someone else in the long ago and far away. No, Resurrection is current events, changing the way we think about God, about others, about ourselves. So let the holy anthem rise. Let Alleluia become our song. Let us have hearts filled with glory. THIS is the day the Lord has made. Let us be glad and rejoice. Alleluia.
