He is Risen!

Easter is unusually early this year. Lent started in the darkness of the winter and while in in the global north Easter has long been tied to spring, it’s still early enough that physical days of shadow and snow may linger. Yet, after 2000 years what more is there to say? Sermons galore, songs abounding, poems piling high, and liturgies around the world resounding with the cry, “Alleluia the Lord is Risen. The Lord is risen indeed, alleluia!”

There alone may be enough to be said. The proclamation of the Resurrection message has continued over twenty centuries through hell and high water, through towers falling, through economies booming, through endless paperwork, through endless controversial elections of the moment, and through the whispers of lovers and the laughter of children. In Saint John’s account of Easter morning Mary Magdalene is asked by Jesus (who she thinks is the gardener), “why are you weeping?” (John 20:15).  

It’s a good question. Not only for Mary, but for us. Mary weeps because she has lost her Lord, because the great movement of hope that was rising in her time had been nailed to a cross, robbed of all breath and taken lifeless to the tomb. All this calls for tears, but to add insult to injury, it seems the body has been stolen. Many of us too have lost our Lord, or had our hopes nailed to a cross of cruelty or terrible circumstance. Many of us have felt robbed of all breath, walked lifeless through life’s thousand little cuts and sat tomb-like contemplating our future.

Easter is easily mistaken as an occasion for smiles, cute bunnies, and new dresses. These have their place, but as happy little trinkets alongside the vast red canvas of the world’s history and our personal histories of blood and sorrow. Easter is a time to weep. To weep over the losses of life for ourselves, those we love, and the world. But it is also a time to tune our spiritual ear to the lyrical delight of hearing our names uttered by the risen Lord. When Jesus said, “Mary” she recognized him instantly and then -- I suggest -- she did not stop weeping but her tears of sorrow turned to tears of joy (John 16:20). This Easter, may yours and mine do the same.