Meeting the Risen Christ
Easter Sunday, April 20, 2003
By The Rt. Rev. Barry Howe, Bishop of the Diocese of West
Missouri
See The Lectionary Page for Easter readings
“’Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.’ But they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.
Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome go to the tomb of Jesus to anoint his body. They flee from the tomb in terror and amazement, filled with fear.
And while they are told to go and tell their friends and especially Peter what they had discovered at the tomb, they say nothing to anyone. Their fear paralyzes them. They can only make off as fast as they can from the empty tomb.
The dynamics of this visit by these three faithful women are very convincing. They had left their former, ordinary lives and had become part of that small community whose members followed Jesus as he traveled through the regions of Galilee and Judah. With his arrest, torture, mocking and brutal death, they had to be asking themselves if they were wrong to have placed their trust and hopes in him. And, along with the other members of that community, they were very concerned that they were now being considered as criminals as a result of their association with Jesus. They were like criminals in solitary confinement with nothing more pressing to think about but the losses visited upon them in their misbegotten lives.
Nevertheless, these women still had strong feelings about Jesus, and were willing to risk going out very early in the morning on a mission to anoint his body, to give a modicum of decency and respect to his remains.
And look what they found! A tomb in which an angel was encamped; an angel who was visible and who spoke to them with very direct orders.
Jesus was not there! It was as if the final blow of their suffering was struck, divesting them of any dignity. They had so very little dignity anyway. They were among the outcasts of their culture, yet they had been promised by Jesus that they were fully loved and fully accepted just as they were in the kingdom his father was establishing. Now there was no future for that kingdom.
And imagine! They were told to go to Peter especially and tell him what they had found. Peter, the guy who had been the most volatile member of the community, and who had not only denied before the Lord’s accusers that he knew Jesus, but who with that denial broke down any hope for the members of the community to have trust in one another.
Peter, chosen by Jesus as the community leader, had ultimately exhibited what happens in a community when the true undergirding, when the foundation of the community is destroyed.
These women were not going to go and find Peter and report to him. Their initial response to the resurrection of Jesus was this increasing fear and agonizing rejection.
We can assume with some assurance, however, that these three women who were paralyzed with fear and unwilling to tell anyone about what they found at the tomb eventually were changed -- transformed as new persons by the resurrection of Jesus.
It was not their great fear and anxiety that transformed them, it was their actual meeting with the risen Christ. When they saw him, touched him, recognized him, ate with him, they knew that all that went before was necessary in order to make all things new -- all things including their own lives.
When they met him and interacted with him, they were truly members of that kingdom that Jesus had promised as he ministered among them.
Some time later, when Peter was found in the temple precincts, preaching about the risen Christ, he was a new person! The temple precincts were still enemy territory for him. The religious leaders were not going to accept what he was offering about the resurrection of Jesus.
But that non-acceptance on their part was no longer an issue for Peter in terms of his own new life. Peter shared that he had been a witness to all that Jesus did in Judea and in the city of Jerusalem. He also shared that when God raised Jesus on tile third day and allowed him to appear, he appeared not to all people, but to those who had been chosen by God as his witnesses. The risen Christ appeared to the members of that community who had been with him. He ate and drank with them. And he commanded that the members of this community preach to people and testify to them that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead.
Peter had been with the risen Christ. He had conversed with him, even though he denied ever having been with Jesus before the Lord’s death. With boldness and courage Peter was doing what the risen Christ had commanded him and the other members of the community to do.
“Go and tell others. Go and tell them not just by your words, but by every action that conveys your new life.”
The love that could forgive Peter, the love that could overcome the anxiety and fear in the three faithful women, the incredible love that could transcend all the evil that had been brought to bear in the crucifixion of Jesus; this love enabled that community to go out as new persons and tell of the transformation of their lives in a hostile and persecuting empire.
The apostle Paul could say in response to his meeting with the risen Christ that by this love the risen Christ transforms the body of our humiliation so that it is conformed to the body of the Lord’s glory, by this power -- this love -- that enables the Lord to make all things subject to himself.
The resurrection of Jesus is God’s most profound act for the purpose of transforming our lives -- transforming them to know and to witness to this power of love that forgives us; that transcends our fears and anxieties; that frees us from our paralyzing obsessions about ourselves; this power of love that reaches deep within us, empowering us to be members of that kingdom that God builds.
The resurrection of Jesus is the act of God that saves us from ourselves! But like those members of the beloved community who had been with Jesus, this act of God has no bearing upon us unless we meet the risen Christ and welcome him into our lives. An account of an empty tomb means very little to us. The witness of an angel might well confuse us. We must meet the risen Christ -- commune with him -- in order to be transformed and to become bearers of that power of love in order to be saved from ourselves.
We know we are not going to meet the risen Christ in the same way the members of that beloved community did. It is our inheritance to meet the risen Christ through the gift of faith. Faith, we are told in the letter to the Hebrews, is the assurance of things hoped for the conviction of things not seen. And yet, as we meet the risen Christ by faith, we begin to experience the things hoped for; we begin to see what is promised as members of a beloved community.
It is all well and good to talk about spiritual things and spiritual power, to speak in long-involved discussions about spiritual reality. It is another thing to find ourselves in the hands of the living God who has made heaven and earth, who has stretched out the stars and fashioned the uncanny intricacy of sub-atomic particles.
When we meet the risen Christ, we find that this living God cares about us and relates to us in the most intimate ways; nurturing us in our hunger, touching us in our pain, walking with us in moments of discovery and in moments of despair, taking us where we would otherwise not go -- to places where the power of love demands that we, with boldness and courage, free from anxiety and fear, stand in the hostile environments of our world and share the good news of new life; of transformed life, life that bears witness to the risen Christ present with us and within us.
The most difficult aspect of meeting the risen Christ is our self-awareness that we are not worthy of his presence with us! We have done nothing to earn his love. We have and we continue to act in ways that betray his love. We will never understand the immeasurable goodness and mercy of God. We are simply to accept that it is outrageous to be loved just as we are!
No one perhaps struggled with this more than the apostle Paul, having been one who worked diligently to destroy any vestiges of the good news of the resurrection of Jesus...until he met the risen Christ. Then, by faith, Paul was able to share the transformation of his life through the power of love by building up the community of the beloved.
This acceptance of us by God is part of the mystery of God that can only be pondered and adored and celebrated!
There is no one path to follow to meet the risen Christ. But there are ways to nurture the opportunities to meet him again and again we know what these ways are: prayer, worship, study of God’s plan for us in his word; all part of opening up ourselves to allow the power of love to enter within.
We are supported and encouraged on our journey by the community of the beloved, by those who are also opening themselves to meet the risen Christ.
We meet him in moments of quiet solitude, when something within us really does change in self-acceptance and in reconciliation. And we meet him in the incarnation of his empowering love in the lives of others, in those who model for us immeasurable love in the midst of a hostile world.
We meet the risen Christ as we die to self, and are raised up by him to live for him. This is what our baptism is all about. It was what the baptism of Jesus was all about in his relationship with the Father. We meet the risen Christ when we truly know by faith that God reigns and God will always reign as he builds his kingdom. All these meetings are moments of transformation, moments when we are empowered anew with the love that saves us from ourselves.
The risen Christ first appeared to those whom he knew, to those whom God had prepared to receive him through their relationship with Jesus. God has not stopped doing that work of preparation. God is doing this work of preparation in our lives! He continues with his grace to prepare each one of us to meet the risen Christ again and again; indeed to commune with the risen Christ at all times and in all places. This is the consummation of things hoped for. This communion becomes the visible reality of our conviction. The risen Christ is meeting us where we are. He is transforming us and making us new. He is freeing us from our anxieties and fears; freeing us from the paralysis of focusing upon ourselves.
He is guiding us and leading us on a journey that bears the fruits of love. He is commanding us to go and tell, in word and deed, what we know as new persons, as heirs of the kingdom God is building.
Blessed be the risen Christ who saves us from ourselves and unites us with the God of love!