Easter Reflection

Yesterday morning my wife and I attended a small community church built 96 years ago with the help of my grandfather in this little town in southern Wisconsin where we now make our home. The sturdy oak pews were crafted in Grandpa’s mill on the south side of Chicago. We were joined by my older brother, now a widower, together with a few old friends and acquaintances. It was a very traditional worship service in a very common place attended by very ordinary people like us.

I began my day with a cup of coffee and John’s Gospel because I find his reflections on his time with Jesus Messiah to be the most thoughtful, credible and meaningful. John reflected on what he had witnessed personally, and these reflections were written down in clear Greek by his colleagues (Jn. 21:24). When I arrived at church I was pleased to learn that the scripture lesson for the day was Jn. 20:1-18. I wondered, though, what the preacher could possibly say to augment my understanding of that passage. But once again I was in for a treat.¹

Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early Sunday morning to perform an act of kindness to the dead in honor of the life that had ended. When she saw the empty tomb she immediately ran to report that Jesus’ body had been taken. Peter and John immediately ran to the tomb, only to discover the truth of Mary’s report. The dead body was gone. The men left for their lodgings. Mary stayed, weeping, and saw two angels in the tomb, who asked her why she was weeping. Mary said someone had taken her Lord and she didn’t know where they had laid him. She turns around to see a man standing in front of her who asks her why she is weeping and whom is she looking for. She asks him if he had taken away her Lord, and the man replies, “Mary!” At that moment she knows the man is Jesus Messiah. Jesus then speaks to her, telling her that he is ascending to his Father. She rushes back to tell the disciples all that she saw and heard.

Now, imagine the shock. It’s a wonder she didn’t faint straight away. I might have. Seeing angels as a vision of two figures in dazzling white did not shock her. Angels somehow exist. But dead men stay dead. For Peter and John at that moment, there was no thought that Jesus might have risen out of the grave. They did not then understand the scripture that he must rise.(Jn.20:9). Nor did Jesus appear to them. Instead, Jesus first appeared to Mary. And herein lies the basis for another kernel of thought. We don’t know why Jesus revealed himself first to Mary. Perhaps it was an act of mercy to assuage her grief.

What we do know is that Mary was the perfect first witness. She had nothing to gain by blurting out her discovery and could have suffered ridicule and even loss of her own life over blasphemy. But she was undaunted. She did not try to downplay the event or make it seem more normal, like a vision or some such. No, she simply reported, “I have seen the Lord” (Jn. 20: 18). As eye witness, she proclaimed the truth, the shockingly stark, simple truth.

My thought kernel is that yesterday in our worship service nothing remarkable happened except that Christ came among us to embrace us and remind us that we are Easter people. Though very ordinary in every earthly way, we are nonetheless people of the Resurrection. We know Christ is risen. We are witnesses to those who were eye witnesses. We, like Mary Magdalene, don’t need to explain it. Perhaps we would do best to just proclaim it. Christ is risen, indeed. Thanks be to God.

1. Credit the thought kernel to Rev. Jim Iliff’s sermon yesterday.