Luke begins his gospel with a dialogue between the angel and Mother Mary in preparation for the incarnation. Mary did not understand much, much less did she humanly could believe. The angel told Mother Mary, ‘Nothing is impossible with God’ (Luke 1: 37). This gospel, as in other synoptic gospels, there are many incidents and events proving that there is nothing impossible with God: the lame walked, the dumb spoke, the hungry is fed, and so on. Mary in her own way must have strengthened others and the apostles with these words that she had received from the angel. But as we approach the end of the gospels the situation is so grim, Jesus, the master healer, the wonderworker is arrested, crucified, and buried, and a huge stone was rolled on to the face of the tomb. Humanly speaking everything is over. The disciples are scattered. The apostles are behind closed doors, in fear. The night had fallen.
There large stone rolled up to cover the tomb of Jesus is symbolically a huge terrifying stone that is standing between the living and the dead. And the question the women who were going to Jesus’ tomb early morning (Mark 16) was “who will roll back the stone for us?” Who will show us what lies after death?
Humanly, with the advancement in knowledge and technology, we have arrived at better clarity, and better solutions for a lot of things that had previously assailed us. But death has been something, at the face of which people have stood confused, lost, and weeping.
The Italian neorealism film, Bicycle Thieves (1948) directed by Vittorio De Sica is the first neorealism film; and is considered to be one of the best films ever made. It depicted the abject poverty, unemployment, and helplessness of people in Italy and Europe after the World War II. Bicycle thieves is the story of a father. Antonio, and a young son, Bruno, of course other family members are also there in the film. Antonio who after long search gets a job that he desperately needed; but to take up that job he needs a bicycle. So he makes a difficult decision to sell whatever little he had at home and buy a bicycle. But as he was beginning to work, someone robs that bicycle. Forced by circumstance, the father decides to do something what he has never done in his life—he robbed an old bicycle. But he did not know how to hide his robbery and survive; within no time, he was caught by the people, and eventually handed over to the police.
He was totally humiliated. He was branded a robber. He did not know how to look at the face of his young son. Bruno lost all the respect for his father, who otherwise had held his father in a very high esteem. Bruno was filled with the feeling of disgrace. As father meets his son, father realises that his son was thinking of ending his life to run away from the shame and abject poverty. Then he speaks these words to his son, “There is a remedy for everything except death.” There could possibly be a solution for poverty, for shame, and for being called and branded as a thief, but for death. Death has been the greatest mystery and coldest fear of humanity.
On the Easter morning, when Mary Magdalene, Mary mother of James, and Joanna reached the tomb, to their shock the large stone that is placed in front of the tomb of Jesus, the huge stone placed between the living and dead had been already removed. THE LORD IS RISEN. They walked beyond the huge stone and saw the empty tomb. They could not fathom it so ran back to report it to the apostles. Peter and his companions, as human as they were, not only could not fathom it, but also could not believe it. They ran back to the tomb. From then on they are in a hurry, they had no time to spend in grief and sorrow. They were overcome with Joy. See the change of emotion in Mary Magdalene: she was shattered by grief, arrived at the tomb, only to find it empty. Tears streamed down her face as she frantically searched, the silence amplifying her loss. "They have taken my Lord," she sobbed to a gardener she encountered, "and I do not know where they have laid him." Then it happened, a word pierced through her despair: "Mary." It was a voice she knew, the voice that had called her from darkness into light. In that instant, the crushing weight of grief lifted, replaced by a surge of disbelief, then overwhelming joy. HE IS ALIVE!
From that moment on, many, starting from the apostles, Paul, and Christians in all ages have heard the same voice calling them out from grief to joy. From that first day of the week on we are in the Easter season, and we are an Easter people. We live with the sure hope of our resurrection.
I.
Do not kill and bury Christ, do not destroy and bury truth, and the like. History from then on has laughed at those who killed and buried Jesus, killed and buried truth. They thought what they buried will get rotten, decompose, and disappear. But truth is far from it. I borrow words from a Greek poet, Dinos Christianopoulos (1931-2020), who often explored themes of struggles of marginalised individuals. As a gay man in a society he too was not always accepted, his work can be seen as a form of defiance against societal norms and prejudices. He writes, “They buried us, but they did not know that we were seeds.” When they buried Jesus they thought he is chaff and dry leaves. They did not know he was a seed; perhaps the most potent seed in the world. He sprouted back to life even stronger. The words of the gospel simply got proved: the stone that the builders rejected has become the corner stone. Truth, love, compassion, inclusivity are all seeds. You can’t kill it by burying them. They sprout back as a stronger presence. With Easter there are more people having courage to stand for truth, show compassion, support justice, and spread love. From one Christ, there rises a billion Christians.
II.
Believe in the possibility of the third day. In the light of the scriptures and the event of resurrection, the third day is the surest day that can happen after a Good Friday, says, Bobby Jose Kattikad, Capuchin. Scriptures are full of indications and testimonies of the third day.
The Prophet Hosea is considered an unfortunate figure due to the unique and deeply personal way God used his life to convey a powerful message to the nation of Israel. His misfortune stems primarily from God's direct command for him to marry a woman named Gomer, who is described as promiscuous or unfaithful. The naming of Hosea's children to be, Jezreel, Lo-Ruhamah (Not loved), and Lo-Ammi (Not my people), were also commanded by God. but Hosea says, come, let us return to the Lord; He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us; he has injured us but he will bind up our wounds. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up (Hosea 6: 1-2).
We are familiar with the story of Jonah, the prophet who flees from God's call to prophesy against the wickedness of the city of Nineveh. But he was thrown down from the ship that he was travelling. A whale saves him from getting drowned. On the third day he was thrown on the shores of Nineveh. From there Jonah has never looked back. I am sure in his old age he would have sat and thanked his God for the third day.
In the gospel of Luke 2: 41-52 we find Jesus being lost from the company of his parents. They were afraid; finally on the third day they find him in temple. Again, on the third day Jesus was there at a wedding at Cana (John 2: 1-11). There he works his first sign to reveal to us the direction we must hold on when things undesirable happen. Elsewhere, standing in front of the temple he says, destroy this temple and in three days I will build it up; and the gospel writer adds that he was talking about his own body. And here we have on the third day, the event of the empty tomb; proclaiming the resurrection of the Lord.
Believe in the third day. Whatever may have happened, failures lose, and death; nothing can hold us down forever. There is a time of God’s intervention in our lives, that time of God is called the third day.
III.
Jesus, though died and rose, will still meet us and intervene in our daily lives. It was Mary Magdalene who first encountered Jesus at the empty tomb. Jesus told her, ask your brothers, meaning the disciples, to go to Galilee; and He will meet them there. Galilee was the place where Jesus and his disciples had spent most of their time together. In other words, Jesus says, I will meet you in your daily lives.
It is true with other appearances too. Jesus never told the disciples to come to Jerusalem temple or to the mount of transfiguration, etc. or he would see them in heaven. Jesus came back to their daily lives. Two disciples were running away to a little village called Emmaus in disappointment; Jesus walks with them, talks with them, breaks bread with them, eats with them, and stays with them. Peter and his companions had gone back to fishing; Jesus stands with them in their daily pains and failures. There is no better place where Jesus meets us than where our daily lives unfold. God meets us at our dining table, classrooms, courtrooms, workplace, and so on.
IV.
Resurrection teaches us how to come in terms with our wounds. We live in families, communities, and societies with experiences of enormous kinds and number of wounds. We talk of the five wounds of Jesus. Five definitely is an understatement, there was no place on his body where it was not wounded. As human as Jesus was, betrayals, denials, and deserting of his close disciples must have wounded him too.
Jesus is risen; the disciples remained behind closed doors. We often blame their fear of the Jews, the soldiers, the rulers, to be the reason for them to be behind closed doors. But I think the main fear was of their own conscience. What will Jesus think of them, what will Jesus tell them, for they had betrayed, denied, and ran away from him.
Finally His footsteps were heard, like the footsteps of God in the Garden of Eden after they ate of the forbidden fruits. They were frightened. Jesus came stood among them and showed them his wounds. Period. He had no rebuke, no complains. And he told them, SHALOM.
It is not just the act of resurrection but the way Jesus returned back to the very people who wounded him bears witness to the fact that wounds are not the end. Resurrection is the process of one coming in terms with one’s wounds. Look at the paradigm shift in the lives of the disciples. In spite of all that had happened, we never see them pointing a finger at one another. They too, with the resurrection of Jesus had become an Easter people. Jesus died and they and we rose to life.
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