Acts of the Apostles 10.34a,37-43 ‘We ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.’
Colossians 3.1-4
‘Seek the things that are above, where Christ is.’
Matthew 28.1-10
‘He has risen and he is going before you to Galilee.’
Alleluia.
Christ is risen!
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The Gospel proclamation
of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is, quite literally, earth shaking news.
When someone hears dramatic
news they often describe themselves as being shaken by it, and we know what
they mean.
Often others can see it
too: ‘so and so looked very shaken by the news.’
Being shaken by news
means one has a total shock to the system: adrenaline, cortisol and dopamine
flood the body, your heart rate increases and you feel quite unlike yourself.
Actually ‘shaken’ is an
understatement in what Mary Magdalene and the other Mary encountered.
They were terrified and
the guards, we heard, ‘trembled and became like dead men’ (there’s an irony,
because this otherwise is a scene of overwhelming life), but then this was very
bad news for them, they now had to account for the fact that the body they were
guarding was missing.
But those women could
be reassured, yes, they were afraid, but underneath we sense that they knew
something like this might happen: after all, Jesus had been very up front about
it throughout the gospels.
Nevertheless, the angel
told them not to be afraid; Christ was risen from the dead.
The Easter proclamation
includes soothing our human fears and insecurities in the face of Divine Power,
as well as the fundamental message: he is risen.
And the earth itself was
so shaken that it could not rest still, it quaked and shook.
So, what shook the
earth; what shook up those women?
The earth shook because
the one who declared ‘let there be light’, who brought the sun and moon and
stars into existence, who made the very earth, and all that dwells in it, had
been buried in the earth, like the grain of wheat - and the earth could not
hold him.
Nothing could restrain
or contain his Resurrection life and resurrected body.
There are echoes of the
book of Jonah, the great fish ‘vomited’ (yes, that’s the word used) vomited Jonah
onto dry land. Jesus speaks of the sign of Jonah (Matthew 16.4) and here it is.
Jonah was in the belly
of the great fish three days and Christ in the deep, dark earth and on the third
day was raised: earth cannot restrain or contain the Crucified and Risen Lord.
And the two Marys had
seen him buried on the eve of the Sabbath Day.
The Sabbath is of
course the day of rest, given to us by God who rested on the seventh day after
six days of creation.
It was on the sixth day
of the week – what we’d call Friday – that mankind was created: on Good Friday
mankind is recreated through the cross, as the New Adam reverses the violation,
by the first Adam, of our relationship with God.
The women come at dawn
on the first day of the week: this is Creation Day, and it is now New Creation Day,
what the Church Fathers call the 8th day of Creation.
A renewed sense of the
earth shaking and quaking impact of the Resurrection of Christ would be a great
tonic for the Church today.
In places resurrection
hope has faded.
Like a plant that is
root bound, some churches have become earthbound looing in on themselves and
not to the Risen Lord – pale shadows of the vibrant life Christ gives.
In some churches Christians
and Christian leaders fail to follow St Paul’s words in our second reading that
raise our eyes and hearts to things heavenly:
Set
your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.
(Colossians 3.2)
Let’s be open to being
shaken up again by the Easter proclamation of the Resurrection of the Crucified
One.
Let us set our sights
and our minds on things heavenly and eternal.
Let us call down
heavenly power to restore the earth, reconcile lives and reanimate the Church.
It may be daunting, it
may shake you up, but you’re here today to hear what Resurrection is and how
earth, and life, shaking it surely is.
‘Do not be afraid’ the
angel told the women and then said ‘Go quickly and tell…’
They ran towards life,
and met the Lord of Life, Jesus himself said to them, and he says to us, ‘go
and tell.’
We come to Jesus now,
the Crucified and Risen Lord, the Lord of Life, sacramentally present in his
Body and Blood, and from here we will go out into the world that needs His Life
now as much as ever.
Be bearers of life
where you live and work and share your life.
People will be shaken
no doubt: let them be! Let them be shaken to know Christ who calls them to
life, life in all its abundance.
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