Easter Sunday, 2020

John 20:1 - 9

When I was growing up Easter was almost as big a holiday as Christmas. We kids gave up candy for Lent, and on Holy Saturday at noon Lent ended for us. We would see how quickly we could eat a chocolate bar at precisely noon. The other thing was that we would get presents, not as lavishly as Christmas, but usually something nice. My sisters would get Easter clothes to wear to church. I’d get new clothes also, but as my wife could tell you, clothes don’t interest me. And there would be Easter eggs, and we kids would race around trying to get as many as we could. I’m sure everyone has their favorite Easter memories. However one that was sort of unique to us in Helena, Montana was that Easter Sunday the local nursery would usually open after being closed all winter. We would go just outside of town and join a lot of people as we walked through the greenhouses and saw the flowers blooming. In one part the owner had several exotic plants, including trees bearing bananas and oranges. The nursery reminded us after a cold and gray winter that spring was coming and the earth would be waking up.

I enjoy reading the accounts of the Resurrection in the Gospels. They are all a little different. In all the accounts women discover the empty tomb. In all the accounts some sort of heavenly being or beings announces that Jesus is risen. And then it’s crazy; he appears to Mary Magdalene, he appears to Peter; he appears to two travelers, he appears to his apostles in a locked room., he appears to all his apostles on the shore of the sea of Galilee. And it goes without saying they rush around telling everyone. I am not doubting the Resurrection appearances, but I wonder if the people who reported them just had no words for what they experienced. The only thing they were certain of, so much so that many went on to be martyrs rather than deny what they had experienced, is that they had encountered Jesus Christ in a glorified bodily form, after his terrible death on the cross.

When I think about the Easter of my childhood, another thing that comes to mind is that every adult that I knew then has passed away -- my grandparents, my parents, my uncles and aunts who were such a big part of my life. Four of my cousins have died as well. My wonderful wife and I are both getting more and more hints that we have far less time ahead of us than behind us. And I am a scientist by nature, and my reason keeps telling me that there is no afterlife, that when you die, that’s it. Oh, I know there are rational arguments that conclude that the soul lives on for all eternity, that it can’t be destroyed; but I’m also aware of arguments on the other side -- that our being conscious is just an illusion, and that there really is no such thing as free will. We are more complex than dogs, and dogs more than lobsters. But we are all just variations on the same theme.

But then I think about that time when Jesus’ disciples were hiding in a locked room, and suddenly they knew Jesus was in the room with them. And all the other times as well. In the heart of every Christian is the same supernatural instinct -- the hope that the Resurrection stories are more than pious legends, the faith that against all logic and science the Resurrection happened, and the fact that we Christians love someone who was crucified 2000 years ago but still moves among us, still speaks to us, and still loves us back.

And I remember all those people I loved when they were alive, the people who shaped me and were my role models, good and bad; the people who all shared in creating my personality and my past. And I am sure that they live on in some unimaginable way. Can I prove it? No. In the end it all comes down to faith, hope and love, and we Christians believe these virtues are theological, that is, they come from God himself.

So I think the stories of Jesus’ appearances after the Resurrection are true stories; they really happened. But the scriptural accounts are just the tip of the iceberg. The bottom line is that after the Resurrection the followers of Jesus and many others (Saint Paul says more than 500 and includes himself) experienced the living risen Christ.

Some Christians think that when Jesus ascended into heaven that was the end of his appearances. But I think they continue, even today. It’s just that we draw a line between how it was in the time of the first Christians and how it is now. Maybe it’s not, maybe Jesus still appears to some of his followers in such a way that they can hardly put it into words -- but their lives were changed by the event, and that is for me an excellent demonstration of authenticity. And those of us who have not had dramatic moments when we experienced the presence of Jesus Christ, if we are believers, if we are living lives in accordance with Jesus’ teachings, well, maybe we don’t need those experiences. After all, most Christians are persuaded by the testimony, both verbal and through action, of other Christians.

My faith tells me Jesus is risen and I will rise because of that. And I think on Easter morning of all those I have known and loved, and how, if I were a loving and all powerful God, they would never be forgotten; and if I were that God I would not let a single human being slip away into oblivion; and in those moments I sense that cloud of witnesses, my brothers and sisters in faith, my family members and friends who have passed on, and I know that if Jesus rose from the dead, so will they; and I choose to believe Jesus rose from the dead.