Easter is a Comma
by Gary Simpson Luke 24:1-12 (William Barclay Translation) On the first day of the week, at the first streaks of dawn, the women came to the tomb, bearing the spices which they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb.
They entered in, but they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were at a loss what to make of this--look you--two men stood by them in flashing raiment. They were afraid, and they bowed their faces to the ground.
But they said to them, "Why are you looking for him who is alive among the dead? He is not here; he is risen. Remember how he said to you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be betrayed into the hands of sinful men and that he must be crucified, and that on the third day he would rise again.”
Then they remembered his words; and they returned from the tomb and brought the news of all these things to the eleven and to the others. Mary Magdalene was there, and Joanna, and Mary, the mother of James. They, and the other women with them, kept telling these things to the apostles. But their words seemed to them an idle tale, and they refused to believe them. But Peter rose up and ran to the tomb; and he stooped down and saw the linen clothes lying all by themselves; and he went away wondering in himself at what had happened.
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Sunrise services are against my religion and I mean seriously against my religion. I enjoy my meditations with St. Mattress and St. Pillow, the patron saints of sleep. We need to remember the setting. Easter did not take place in the power seat of the Roman Empire, Rome, or in a cultural center, such as Athens. Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday took place in an occupied land. Palestine was under Roman control and the presence of Roman soldiers in ancient Palestine was offensive to many of Jesus’ Jewish contemporaries. On a modern worldwide scale, the passion story would not take place in Peking, London, Moscow or Washington, DC. But I could picture the passion taking place in Bangladesh or the Congo. In the United States, the story would be more likely to have taken place in Puerto Rico than in New York City or Los Angeles. In Canada, Calvary would be more likely to have been centered in Nunavut or Yellowknife than in Ottawa, Vancouver or Montreal.
Jesus was crucified by the Romans, not because the Romans saw Him as a religious threat. He was crucified by the Romans, because He caused religious unrest when His teaching conflicted strongly with the teachings of traditional rabbis. Getting rid of Jesus seemed like an easy solution to political and religious unrest. This is a story of empowerment and hope, on many different levels. In the story, we see the Spirit of Jesus being empowered by the resurrection. The good that Jesus did refused to die and took life again. The influence of a good life, the influence of a good teacher, the influence of a good pastor refuses to die. Through the Spirit, the influence continues, in the form of family stories, in the forms of books and media, and, more importantly, incarnate in the lives of those touched. But the empowerment does not stop there. The women, who were not really equals to men in ancient Jewish society, arrived to perform an act of service. And they were empowered! They became the first people to see the empty tomb, to see the angels and to know that Jesus was alive. But it gets even more liberating. The honor of discovering that Jesus is alive is shared with Mary Magdalene. There is controversy about Mary Magdalene, with some theologians taking the position that she was a sex trade worker. One of the more controversial figures of the Christian Scriptures is among the first to see the empty tomb. The empowerment of Calvary continues. There are two ways in which we find empowerment at the empty tomb. We find empowerment given to groups of people and to individuals. The corporate application of Easter is strongly presented by Johnny Youngblood, a Black preacher, who notes, "There is a sense in which Calvary was Selma and there is a sense in which Selma, for us, is Calvary.”(1) If he were speaking to an Indigenous congregation, he might have noted, “There is a sense in which Calvary was Wounded Knee, a sense in which Calvary was Oka and there is a sense in which Wounded Knee and Oka are Calvary.” For a congregation of sexual and gender minority people, Johnny Youngblood might make the point that, “There is a sense in which Calvary was Stonewall and in which Stonewall was Calvary.” The liberating power of the teachings of Jesus continue to inspire activists and humanitarians, as they attempt to improve the lives of members of marginalized groups in society. The passage also applies on a more personal level. I really like Johnny Youngblood’s comment, “You don’t put a period behind Calvary. You put a comma, maybe a semicolon, maybe a colon, but not a period.” When life feels like it is too much, when you feel beaten down by life, remember, “You don’t put a period behind Calvary. You put a comma . . .”(2) No matter how rough things may seem, Easter gives us the sense that God is not through, that God is not through creating through us, that God has not stopped speaking. As you celebrate Easter today, my hope is that you will find Easter to be a comma, an empowering and liberating comma.
Notes:
(1)Johnny Ray Youngblood. “The Resurrection Luke 24:1-10,11”. You Tube: MtPisgahBC. 04 Apr 2016, 19 Apr 2019. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CMrGI4cvV8>. (2)Youngblood. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CMrGI4cvV8>.
