The mystery
of
the Resurrection
…as an ancient
hymn describes it…
Putteth to
flight the deeds of darkness,
Purgeth away
sin:
Restoreth
innocence to the fallen,
and gladness
unto them that mourn:
Casteth out
hatred, bringeth peace to all mankind,
and boweth
down mighty princes.
Exsultet
jam Angelica
That first
morning, began in darkness.
We recall that
holy vigil that St. Mary Magdelaine initiated:
THE first day
of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto
the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre.
And just as with
Christmas day – when we had, surprisingly, not the story of the
birth of Jesus but the prologue of St. John's Gospel – today, we have this
Gospel anciently appointed for Easter which does not report on the
appearance of the risen Jesus, but merely on the empty tomb.
One preacher
(Isaac Williams) has suggested it is so that we are confronted today
with the simple beginnings of a profound truth that was to change
all that is. It was the moment of first belief in the Resurrection
of Jesus.
We today, as
with those first disciples, are being encouraged to believe in
Him whose risen body we have not seen. We are to marvel at the
empty tomb. And remember our Lord’s words to Thomas, Blessed are
they that have not seen, and yet have believed. (Williams)
Then she
runneth, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple whom
Jesus loved, and saith unto them, They have taken away the Lord out
of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him. Peter
therefore went forth, and that other disciple, and came to the
sepulchre. So they ran both together … For as yet they knew not the
Scripture, that he must rise again from the dead.
All of them in a
state of grief, in a state of shock, unable to comprehend the
horrors of the Cross they had witnessed only two days before. Yet
another indignity? Grave robbers? And yet Peter and John ran when
Mary came to them – surely, the Holy Spirit speaking in their
hearts, even while they ran, the faintest whisper of the truth as
they could bear it, breathing ever so carefully on the dull embers
of hope almost utterly crushed to rekindle it, preparing them for
the sight of the empty tomb, and its significance.
And the
other disciple did outrun Peter, and came first to the sepulchre;
and he stooping down, and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying;
yet went he not in. Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went
into the sepulchre, and seeth the linen clothes lie; and the napkin
that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but
wrapped together in a place by itself.
Not the work of
robbers, why would they leave the cloths? Why would the napkin
about his head be wrapped and in a place by itself? The Holy Spirit
perhaps bringing to their minds now the words of their Saviour, the
words Jesus spoke again and again while he was with them,
remembered, but not received until now in their hearts.
they shall mock him, and shall scourge him, and shall spit upon him,
and shall kill him: and the third day he shall rise again
Then went in
also that other disciple which came first to the sepulchre, and he
saw, and believed.
A grand
understatement. No trumpets are needed, no whole host of heaven, a
still small voice, the light coming on, the first candle lit in the
first heart. In him was life; and the
life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and
the darkness overcometh it
not.
Blessed are
[we
this day] that have not seen, and yet have believed. The
light has been lit in our hearts.
---------------
A little more
about the empty tomb.
Why was Mary
Magdalene there keeping vigil? Why is she the first person in the
world to whom our Lord would soon after chose to reveal himself, in
the garden?
Luke and Mark
describe Mary Magdalene as the woman from whom Jesus had cast out
seven devils. Perhaps a description of her soul’s depravity before
meeting with Jesus – perhaps she was the woman caught in adultery
and troubled by every other passion that had led her to the gates of
death: uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and
covetousness, which is idolatry… wrath, anger, malice, slander, and
filthy talk. …For which things' sake, says St. Paul,
the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience.
Mary Magdalene,
sweet Mary, knew hell and had been delivered by her Lord – her soul
had been swept clean – but it was like an empty tomb. She knew the
grace of forgiveness, and she had mortified, put to death,
her members which are upon the earth, she knew the power of the
Cross, but did she yet know the Resurrection life? If she were
alive to Christ, would she have sought his body with mourning, would
she have been fixed upon the earthly object of His presence?
What about us?
We have gone to
the Cross, we have begun to mortify our members which are upon
the earth – we are less and less white-washed tombs filled
with dead men’s bones. But when we have confessed our sin, when
we have received forgiveness, are we just empty tombs? Are we
stuck, forgiven at the foot of the Cross, but not alive to Christ?
IF ye then be
risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ
sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things
above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life
is hid with Christ in God.
We’re to turn
that zeal, our affections, that we had for the world, towards a zeal
for Christ and a love of our neighbour.
And here is
where I admit to being somewhat confounded.
I confess to
having great tension in my soul about what this should mean for all
of us, what it should look like?
At the beginning
of Christ’s ministry, he called on Peter and James and John and they
left their nets, their boats, they left everything and followed
Christ. And these followers went to distant lands and shared
the Good News of the Cross and of the Resurrection and endured
hardship and cruel death out of zealous love.
In the Middle
Ages, monastic movements sprang up all over Europe and the Middle
East with thousands and thousands being moved to give up everything,
to seek wholeheartedly those things which are above…to
set their affections on things above.
The life of the
saints over the ages seeking those things which are above,
setting their affections on things above, living the risen life
in Christ.
And what about
this age?
The world,
suddenly, wants to make Judas a hero – to revive the covetous
betrayer, the lover of money – a wonderful sign of the times; or
last year, and it continues, it was that, the world can’t believe
that Jesus was celibate – he must have had relations with Mary
Magdalene. And how could he possibly go to the Cross, it must
be a fiction. But no Cross, no Resurrection – and we lie wasting in
our tombs, with a few men making millions from books and movies.
Just one thing after another – trying to trouble us, but to no
avail. We are followers of the crucified and risen Jesus.
What is
following Jesus wholeheartedly? What is it supposed to look like in
our age?
Do you see any
disconnection in your own lives? Do you know this tension in your
souls? Do you long for more freedom in the Spirit, for greater
spiritual adventure?
Do we feel that
we have consecrated our whole lives to Christ? Are we living
the resurrection life? or is it all half measures, or quarter
measures, or a tenth, or maybe not even that?
Cast off the
old self with its evil deeds, and put on the new, which is being
refashioned unto knowledge according to the image of its creator; in
whom…Christ is all in all.
The mystery
of
the Resurrection
Putteth to
flight the deeds of darkness,
Purgeth away
sin:
Restoreth
innocence to the fallen,
and gladness
unto them that mourn:
Casteth out
hatred, bringeth peace to all mankind,
and boweth
down mighty princes!
Christ is
risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!
