April 21, 2019

Helen Jacobi

Easter Day     Isaiah 65:17-25     Luke 24:1-12

“If the dead won’t even stay dead – what is there to count on?” asks writer Ann Carter Florence. [1] Or as Benjamin Franklin said “in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” Which is why the words of Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary, the mother of James, are dismissed as an “idle tale.” In saying they thought it was an “idle tale” the translators are being polite – apparently a better translation of the Greek leros would be – their words are dismissed as utter garbage. [2] Of course no one believed them. Obviously the dead stay dead.

When Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary go to the tomb, early on the Sunday they are going with spices and oils to anoint Jesus’ body. A sad but important task. They are distressed to find the tomb empty and then terrified by some men in dazzling clothes – are they visions? angels?

whoever they are, they ask “why do you look for the living among the dead?” Why even look here? Why look in a tomb for someone who is alive?

They are confused of course but they are told by the angels to remember – to remember Jesus’ words, his teaching, who he was. So …. they go and tell the eleven (the 12 disciples minus Judas) what they have seen, and that they have been told to remember – to remember what Jesus had taught them.

Still none the wiser, the men dismiss this as an idle (read full of rubbish) tale of women. Women who are upset so easily they are acting hysterically. Visions of angels indeed!

Peter, though, just to make sure, goes to the tomb, sees the linen wrappings, and no body, and then Luke says “he went home”. What does he go home to do? Have breakfast, lunch? He has no idea what to do with this news. Maybe that is a more typical male reaction – we will wait till we know what is going on here before we start to spread idle rumours. The women do not wait, they tell what they know, even if they don’t understand it, they proclaim it, they live it.

On Good Friday we saw silence of Jesus. The silence of Jesus before Pilate – how we imagine him because of all the paintings – Pilate asking questions, the accusers accusing, the crowd shouting. But after he leaves Pilate’s house he begins to talk. He talks to the women who are weeping, to the criminals crucified with him, he prays. Jesus breaks the silence and speaks the truth of his and others’ suffering and speaks hope into their pain.

On Easter morning it is the turn of the women to break their silence and speak the truth about what they have seen and experienced. In Luke’s version they do not see Jesus – he appears first to the followers walking the road to Emmaus. But they share what they know, and it turns out notto be an idle tale.

If we waited to be sure about our faith, if we waited to have physical proof that would satisfy Richard Dawkins, we would not be here today.

There would be no Easter and no church. We don’t get to see Jesus either, we have the tale of the women and others to inform our faith.

At times in our lives we might be perplexed as the women were, at other times we might be terrified, and then at other times, disbelieving with Peter, or convinced like Thomas was eventually. There is lots of room in the resurrection stories for a variety of feelings and reactions.

We don’t all have to think or believe the same thing.

The question of the angels is still relevant to us, whatever we think: “Why do you look for the living among the dead?” Why do you look for life where there is none? Why do you expect happiness to come from the amount of money you earn? Why do you expect the worst of people and not the best? Why does twitter go crazy when there is bad news and not for good news. Why do you hang on to old tired ideas or ideals rather than seeking a new vision in your workplaces or your families?

When the terrible massacre occurred in Christchurch only one month ago our Prime Minister chose the living over death instinctively – she called us all to compassion, love and kindness; and denied the killer even his name. 

And so we followed: we gave, we prayed, we hoped for a better world.

We made promises about calling out racism, seeking to assist our Moslem sisters and brothers. Have we done that? Will we?

We will if we believe life can conquer death. We will if we believe good is stronger than evil. One month on we are in danger of forgetting all our promises to make Aotearoa a better nation post 15 March 2019. Let’s not forget.

Easter is not about happy endings [3] like in the fairy tales; Easter is about choosing life when everything around you is pointing to death. Easter is about banning those weapons; going to a mosque to pray; reaching out to our neighbours who are different from us.

Easter is about hope – the people of Paris kneeling in the streets and praying and weeping as their cathedral burned and finding life in each other. Easter is about joy. Easter is about life.

On Easter Day we are called to step out of the tombs of our lives, the things that hold us back from new life as individuals and as a community.

Claim life, claim joy, claim hope.

It is not an idle tale, it is a tale which brings us life.

[1] http://www.workingpreacher.org/craft.aspx?m=4377&post=2249

[2] ibid

[3] Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan The Last Week p 205