We can all think of national leaders, both good and bad, who have met a violent or untimely end. Some, like Adolf Hitler, have died in war. Some, like John Kennedy, have been assassinated. Some, like Nikolae Ceaucescu, or Charles I of England or Louis XVI of France, have been tried and executed. None of them, two days after their death, have returned to their followers and told them they are still living.
We can all think of innocent people who have met tragic deaths in accidents, in natural disasters, through acts of terrorism or of war. None of them, no matter how innocent, have returned to those who loved them. And yet Jesus, the leader of all leaders, the most innocent of all people, tried and brutally executed, after two nights in the grave, returned to his followers and consoled and strengthened them.
God's world operates according to fixed and unchanging rules. A world where God intervened only occasionally, not regularly, would be unpredictable, frightening, a source of stress rather than of comfort. Dead people do not come to life again. But Jesus did - and so did Lazarus, and Jairus' daughter before him, as signs of his own resurrection. Somehow God intervened. As Christians, we believe this, for in Paul's words, if Christ has not been raised, then our faith is in vain (1 Cor 15:14).
God's world operates according to fixed and unchanging rules. This does not rule out the possibility of something miraculous happening - for in a sense, the whole world around us is miraculous. But we must be careful. The God who "saw everything that had been made, and behold, it was very good" (Gen 1:31) does not go around tinkering here and there, tweaking the world to make it better. The Resurrection was part of a long-term plan.
Mark captures the reaction of the first witnesses of Jesus' resurrection: the three women "fled, for trembling and astonishment had come upon them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid." (Mark 16:8) They saw that God had intervened, and the sheer unexpectedness of the Empty Tomb was terrifying.
Jesus acts to calm the shock experienced by all who witness his resurrection. "Do not be afraid" (Matt 28:10), "Why are you troubled?" (Luke 24:38), "Peace be with you." (John 20:19) His rising again is not something unnatural, but something to be expected. Expected, as he explains to the disciples, because scripture, the Old Testament, had pointed forward to it. And expected because he was himself the Resurrection and the Life.
Jesus was unique. So we need not expect anyone else to come popping out of the grave. Jesus' work is complete. But the Resurrection was for all of us, and we can join in the uniqueness of it. "Whoever believes in me, though they die, yet they shall live," says Jesus (John 11:25). Paul reminds the Romans how, through baptism, we are "buried with Christ Jesus into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead, we too may walk in newness of life...knowing that he will never die again." (Rom 6:4-9).
That first Easter Sunday was a historic event. The Resurrection was the turning point, the ultimate "good news" behind the church's existence. But more than that, it is a living event, which we recall here and now. For in Jesus, raised with him through baptism, nourished with his body in the Eucharist, we too can share his risen life. We are dead to sin, once for all. Alleluia!
HD