That which is unknown and unexpected evokes fear.
Take this illustration, for example: you open a kitchen drawer and quickly note, out of the corner of your eye...something was moving in there. Before you can consciously identify the form as a lizard, your heart is pounding and your legs have seemed to have taken you away on their own. Only then do you see that you’ve overreacted. This fight or flight response is as ancient as it is adaptive. You are hardwired with this unconscious highjacking, so to speak. Had this been an actual threat you might have been harmed had you needed to stop and think in order to decide what to do.
Our Gospel reading is the rather abrupt ending of the Gospel According to Mark. It ends on Easter morning, when some of the women who had been following Jesus and who had witnessed his crucifixion went to his tomb. The Sabbath was over and with the light of dawn, they had a less than pleasant job to do. As was the custom, they needed to anoint Jesus' body with fragrant spices. To their surprise, they found the stone had been rolled away and inside a messenger in a white robe saying, as angels so often do, “Be not afraid.” I’m thinking that the words of the mysterious messenger, that Jesus was raised and had left the building, and the sight of the empty platform where Jesus’ body should have been...this unexpected and unknown experience triggered a deep sense of danger and an unconscious flight to safety. They did not linger to ask questions but ran in fear, their feet taking them away before any pondering could occur. Can you imagine their thoughts when they did start thinking? What could the empty platform mean? What happened to Jesus? What is going on? Have the Romans taken his body? Will we be blamed? Was this a trap? Are the Chief Priests trying to frame us? In situations of uncertainty it is so easy to assume the worst.
Of course, we know the story does not end with fear and silence. Something new had happened...Death was not the final word….Jesus was raised to a new kind of life and would keep revealing himself for a season. And what of those women? They would overcome their fear, focus on the words of the angel, and proclaim what they had seen and experienced to Peter and the others.
Fear is not the final word. And, it is nowhere near the emotion for this day. Today is all about the joy of the Resurrection!
I think the best kind of learning is associated with joy. Have you ever been delighted when you’ve suddenly made a connection. You know, like when you are a child and your family has been telling you about the ocean and what to expect, but you’ve never seen the ocean before...and then you see it for the first time. If you live in Galveston long enough, you will see parents with their child on the Seawall, and the child is jumping up and down pointing to the water. The youngster finally experienced what his or her parent had been telling them... the connection was made, a lasting memory formed, endorphins were released, and the feeling was pure joy!
Once I was preparing a sermon for a funeral when a family member of the deceased shared a story. She had been with her father shortly before his death when she became aware that he was tracking something around the room with his eyes. She could not see what he was looking at. Then, she saw a wide smile on his face as though whatever he was seeing brought him great joy and peace. I knew this man to be a person of strong faith, and wondered, did he make a connection between what he was seeing and something that he had learned in church? Was he finally seeing for himself what he had known previously only by faith? Did this learning bring joy to his heart? Would he have pointed while jumping up and down like a child had his failing body allowed it? I wonder.
Today is the celebration of what has been handed down to us of first importance: that Jesus was raised on the 3rd day to a new kind of life...recognizable to us but clearly on a different order. Jesus has promised that we too will share this life with him. Jesus went ahead of his disciples to Galilee, and he has gone ahead of all of us to the Father in Heaven. He has sent the Holy Spirit to inspire and strengthen us in this life, and finally, to help us when it our time to see with our own eyes the first glimpse of the other side. One day we'll all have the opportunity to make the connection between what we have learned together in this place and the vision of what comes next.
The Resurrection is not a concern only for the life to come; it means that the Love of God continues, informing how we live our lives, how we treat one another, how we approach everything with a feeling that all manner of things work for the good despite everything we must bear. With the help of the Holy Spirit, may we all experience, today and every day, a foretaste of the joy to come because we already know that victory belongs to our God. AMEN.
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