The women who had come with him from
Galilee followed, and they saw the tomb and how his body was
laid. Then
they returned, and prepared spices and ointments.
On the sabbath they rested according
to the commandment.
But
on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they 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. Luke 23:55-24:3
I am thinking about how we arrive at church on
Easter morning.
Some
of us come on Easter with great faith
and confidence in the resurrection.
Some
of us come with more questions
than faith, more perplexed than confident.
Some
of us come because the only way to get to the big Easter meal is to
go to church with family. (And we welcome you. That’s not a bad
reason.)
Some
of us come not believing at all
but wanting to join the
celebration.
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. Luke 24:4-12
I
don’t think that the first visitors to the tomb believed much of
anything, or had any idea what to make of what
they found. The women find
the empty tomb and they stand there wondering. They go to tell the
disciples what they have seen, and the disciples think that it’s
nonsense. Peter alone goes to see for himself. And what does Peter
do when he has seen the empty tomb with his own eyes? He goes home,
just like us!
On Easter, instead of thinking
that it’s time to get all of our questions about the
resurrection answered, what if we did just the opposite?
What if Easter is a time for getting our
thinking knocked out of joint enough that we can see the world from
new angles. Instead of questioning the truth of the
resurrection, what if we allow the resurrection
to question us?
Where are the places in
life where you have given up hope too soon?
What gifts have you buried away out of
fear or weariness or distraction?
When have you been surprised by
goodness when you expected something worse?
