FROM THE DAWGHOUSE…
The Resurrection – An Invitation to Believe
You would think I’d recall the exact date. Some 45 years ago – in my mid-twenties – I vividly remember reading the familiar story of the resurrection. But at this particular reading, the words burned through my mind into my heart like never before. My spirit was overwhelmed. I felt a comforting presence fill the room. It took away all the fear and sadness I was feeling in my life. My heart overflowed with irrepressible joy. And then it dawned on me: Jesus is risen! As if it were the first time those words had ever been revealed – Jesus is risen!
Every year since, during all the “busyness” of Holy Week, I remember that day as I meditate on the Gospel account of the Resurrection. I marvel at their differences and similarities, as Pastor Pete referenced at Forge. Was it one young man who greeted the women (Mark 16:5), two men (Luke 24:4), one angel (Matthew 28:2), or two angels (John 20:12)? Was Jesus crucified the day of Passover (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) or the day before Passover (John)? Skeptics point to these discrepancies as proof that the stories were made up or borrowed from mythology. But if the accounts of the resurrection intended to deceive, you’d think they’d have done a better job getting their “facts” straight.
Even more perplexing are two parts of the story they agree on: Mary Magdalene was the first to get to the tomb and the stone had already been rolled away. If they were simply making the story up, Mary Magdalene would be a poor choice as primary witness to the central tenet of our faith, don’t you think? Not only was the testimony of women not accepted, Jesus had cast seven demons out of her (Mark 16:9). Psychologists would label her delusional, if not psychotic. As if to rub our noses in this embarrassing detail, Mark places it at the beginning of his Resurrection account. Reason dictates if this detail were not true, they would not have invented it, let alone all agree on it.
But the four Gospels also share an even more curious detail: When the women arrived, the stone had already been rolled away. Why? Surely it was not to let Jesus out, as he had no problem passing through walls into locked rooms. Nor was it simply to show that the tomb was empty, as scholars suggest. After all, had believers really wanted to prove the Resurrection, what better way than to have the women find the tomb still sealed with the guards keeping watch? Wouldn’t you agree? After much weeping and pleading, the women get their permission and help to roll the stone away. Lo and behold, Jesus is gone – even David Copperfield would be impressed! With the shroud neatly folded, there could have been only one logical explanation: Jesus had risen from the dead.
But I don’t think the Gospel writers are retelling the Resurrection story to prove it true, but rather to invite us to believe. I think the stone is rolled away precisely to introduce the element of holy doubt. After all, it is faith and not certainty that saves us. Each Easter Season we face plausible explanations for the empty tomb: The disciples took the body, grave robbers stole it, or the owner of the tomb removed it. Only the fourth explanation requires faith: The Lord is truly risen.
Holy Week spurs us to recall that first Easter morning dawning on a world not unlike our own. Fear, violence, and death seemed everywhere then and everywhere now. Political tension and social unrest threaten our sense of security. Our country has reeled from so many school shootings, including the recent tragedy in Nashville. Yet even there, at The Covenant Christian School, the darkness will not overcome the light. Just like the words of Martin Luther King continue to inspire, the life and spirit of Jesus, heart by heart by heart, transforms our broken world. Alleluia!
Jesus is Risen. Jesus is Risen Indeed!
– Pete Alwinson
