Easter Emerges

I love the resurrection narrative in the gospel of Matthew, where there is a mighty earthquake, the soldiers collapse and the stone is rolled away from the tomb. It has all the drama one would expect for someone rising from the dead. But there's just one problem: Jesus isn't in this story. He does not come bursting out of the tomb, "Ta-da, here I am!" He is long gone, out quietly walking in the garden, waiting for the moment when he would speak to Mary.

We associate Easter Sunday with trumpets and choirs and exclamations of "He is risen! Truly he is risen!" This is right and good - these are expressions of our profound joy, and the angels and saints in heaven join in the triumphant chorus!

It occurred to me, however, that Jesus' resurrection actually comes in well under the radar. Jesus appears and disappears. Even his disciples do not always recognize him when they encounter him. They begin to believe and understand what he said about rising from the dead, but they need his help to fully comprehend it. And it is still a few more weeks - at Pentecost - before they are confident enough to talk about it publicly.

Thus there is an emergent quality to the Easter story that is meaningful to me personally. My ongoing experiences of resurrection (along with those daily experiences of dying) tend not to be jubilant "ta-das" but more like glimpses of the Lord, brief, life-altering encounters with Jesus, glimmers of hope and a growing confidence in the truth of his life and words. 

The Easter season has come to me this year with a great gladness of heart! It has been a struggle to articulate my thoughts in this blog during Lent, but the effect has been to spend a lot more time in joyful contemplation of my faith. I thank those of you who have bothered to read my attempts, and hope you will continue to visit once in a while, as I intend to keep writing. The fasting of Lent is done, but the season of Easter has just begun!