Easter Sunday

Today’s Gospel reminds us that the story of the resurrection begins with an empty tomb, with Mary Magdalene who weeps not just because Jesus has died, but because she believes someone has taken his body from the tomb.  So Peter and the beloved disciple run to the tomb and see the burial cloths there.  They see and believe.

The Passion narratives make no sense without Easter.  And it is here that the scriptures intersect with our lives most powerfully.  Yes, we suffer the pain of a broken world, of dashed expectations and seeming hopelessness.  But the Resurrection tell us that death is never the last word, that God is always a God of surprises and that nothing is impossible with God.

Peter in Acts reports what the early Christians believed: that Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit and power, preached, did good things, and healed those gripped by the devil.  Then his enemies killed him by hanging him on a cross, but after three days God raised him up.  He was seen by his followers who now must give witness to Jesus in whose name we have forgiveness of sins.

Notice how Peter does not try to prove the resurrection or explain it.  Peter doesn’t even refer to what Jesus taught but to what he did and what God did for him: God transformed the scandalous death of Jesus on a tree to a glorious resurrection in which all of his followers share the same power of transformation.  The resurrection is about Christ and it is about us.

Again, Paul in the second reading is speaking about the resurrection of Christ but also about our own transformation.  Paul uses the image of the old yeast that has the potential to ruin the whole batch of bread.  He advises the Corinthians to put aside their sinful ways and celebrate with the fresh unleavened bread of Christ.  Again, the resurrection is about what God has done for Jesus, but it is also about what God has done for us.

It’s a pity that Mary Magdalene does get shortchanged in the gospel reading today.  If we read further on in John, she stays there at the empty tomb and is the first person to see the Risen Lord and is the first Christian to actually preach: “I have seen the Lord!”  Now what do those who believe women shouldn’t preach do with a text like that?

The resurrection is something we celebrate, and the best place to do that is at the Lord’s table.  There we confess our broken infidelity, and then, with eyes of faith, we name the grace evident in our common lives, and share his Body and Blood, which is given as a source of our own transformation to new life.

The resurrection of Christ is not just about the glorious event of the past but about seemingly impossible transformations that occur in the present because of Christ’s power and the Holy Spirit.  Christ is risen, Christ is alive, and Christ is active in our world.  Alleluia!

Paul A. Magnano

Pastor