“Now it was Mary Mag’dalene and Jo-an’na and 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”(Luke 24:10-11).
For an hour or so in worship today, we permit ourselves to believe that Easter brings unencumbered joy, unambiguous victory, and undeniable hope. I hope your worship was wonderful and your Easter breakfast delicious.
Beginning as early as this afternoon and certainly by tomorrow, life is going to creep in and cast its long shadow. Perhaps Pastor Bright’s penchant for “Star Wars” is rubbing off on me, but I desire an all-encompassing cosmic force to bring the reign of God. I want the risen Christ to be everywhere all at once, doing everything that needs doing, right now. When this doesn’t happen, I can find myself joining the first apostles in wondering whether the news of Jesus’s resurrection is an idle tale.
So I am recalibrating my Easter expectations. I’m noting that Luke’s account of the first Easter has much in common with this Easter: doubt as the women consider Jesus’s missing body, terror as the men in dazzling clothes show up, division among God’s people as the women testify and the apostles do not believe their words, and a Jesus who seems nowhere to be found or at least not where the women expect Jesus to be. Luke’s Easter story does not end, “and they lived happily ever after.” It is not a fairytale.
More important, Luke’s Easter story is not an idle tale. The good news we celebrate today is that Jesus is alive. The powers opposed to God, including death, could not banish Jesus from life. Rising to new life, Jesus brings us and all things with him. Jesus is victorious. Jesus reigns. And the powers opposed to God, including death, did not surrender. They have not given up.
But Jesus is alive. That Jesus lives means Jesus is growing, changing, learning, and creating as he continues to bring God’s reign and new life. Since Jesus is alive, we will not find him in the tombs of certainty, finality, or the removed respectability we so often bestow upon him. Jesus is not above or beyond the struggles of our lives or the struggles of our world. In fact, Jesus is making his way in the world, doing what Jesus has always done: proclaiming the nearness of God’s reign, healing, feeding, curing, forgiving, welcoming, and challenging the powers opposed to God.
Celebrating that Jesus is alive as opposed to celebrating Easter might be a lot less joyous in the short term. It is also much more real in the long-term. I pray the good news that Jesus lives gives you hope later today and tomorrow when life creeps in and casts its long shadow.
Jesus lives! Christ is risen indeed!
The. Rev. Craig Alan Satterlee, Ph.D., Bishop