John 20:1-18

Jottings on John…Easter Day…Revised 2019 

(For Luke 24:1-12 see Laterally Luke ad loc)

The first of two big challenges I see in Easter preaching is bringing the story out of its past - & Jesus out of His with it! - & telling it on in the Present Tense. In us! So Jesus is raised & among us by His Spirit now. If the story ends back then it ends indeed! The second challenge, at the other end of the time scale, is, again, making Resurrect-ion happen as a Now thing; not something vaguely, or even enthusiastically, hoped for on some future Last Day. Compared, though, with taking Easter & Resurrection as only a thing of the past, or a possibility of the future, taking the holiday, is very much Present Tense! How can we bridge that gap between Eternal & Secular time?

On the First Easter Day God turns the tables on Caiaphas & his cohorts, Herod & his, &, of course, Pilate & his! All of them representing misdirected power at one level or another! There’s a lot of that about now, too! In many parts of the world. ‘Nominally Christian’ nations can be found arguing over how to create, or, save physical energy, but overlooking the Divine Energy Resurrection represents. If we fail to live out Christ’s Raised Life in our communal structures, no wonder the wheels fall off!

Rather than emphasise the need for personal & individual responsibility for Faith, as we often do, why not explore the possibilities & consequences of Easter from the angle of community, national, & corporate responsibility in very laissez-faire times? Rather than simply blaming politicians for the state we’re in, why not ask if our own failing to live out being resurrected with Christ is backfiring on us all?

Finding the raised Christ can be a very elusive business if we’re looking for Him only in some half-light. Mary M is first to be baffled. Next, one of the others reaches the tomb ahead of the other, but at first doesn’t go in. How like the way Resurrection dawns on believers today! We must go in! 

The two men go home, more than a little chastened, but Mary M, who’s returned to the tomb with them, remains. She meets up with two angels, then unwittingly, with Jesus Himself. Always be on the look-out for angels, whatever their guise. They’re always pointing us in the direction of Christ raised from the dead, alive in the world, &, as a consequence, offering us new possibilities for raised life too, in all sorts of situations!

 Our trio, &, later, other disciples, represent stages any of us may need to pass through on the way to a discipleship based on experiencing Christ raised in or lives! Someone else telling us about their experience is no substitute for our meeting the Raised Christ in Person!

Brian 

Afterthought: As our own stories of being raised with Christ grow & expand, the more all the God-dots are joined. The more Belief & Joy & Confidence break through into our personal & communal experience the better we’ll all be.