I remember the first time my future wife told me she loved me. We had been dating for a while, and then one night, when we said goodbye, she kissed me and told me she loved me. I was shocked. I was thrilled. I was in awe that someone so lovely and wonderful found me, with all my imperfections, exceptional. I was transformed.
Today we celebrate the event that tells us in no uncertain terms that God loves us, and that God loves us in spite of all our sins, errors, and pain. The open grave, the slack linens inside, the bewildered onlookers all carry the same message. The tomb is empty. God loves us. We are transformed.
This is good news for those of who feel so unloved and so overwhelmed by our problems, failures and mistakes. It is easy to feel that we are unlovable, not only as individuals but as communities and nations. We seem intent on hurting ourselves and one another with betrayals large and small, with conflicts that sometimes turn violent, with selfishness and insecurity.
The empty tomb of Christ tells us that God loves us still, and that God's love is not dependent on our moral performance but merely on our acceptance of this love.
Good Friday ends with the image of Jesus sealed in his grave, spent, having completely placed his life in God's hands. Jesus let go of the ability to control his own destiny. His death represents the complete failure of human ambition, material and religious, to create our own path to truth, freedom and redemption. We cannot do it alone. We end up frustrated, angry and violent.
When the disciples roll away the stone on that first Easter morning, they find that Christ is risen and that the love of God is greater than anything they had every dared imagine. They, too, are transformed from timid cowards to fierce leaders who will go on to change the world for good.
We all need to experience this message and to open ourselves to the transformation it promises. Certainly our world needs to be transformed again and again; just as certainly, our lives need to be transformed again and again. The power of the Resurrection is available to all of us. The future holds opportunities for joy and freedom, not fear and death.
The tomb is empty --- that is our destiny as Christians. It should liberate us to live daring lives of love, compassion, generosity and joy.
If you're like me, it's easy for Easter to become just another Sunday --- only worse. No parking. No place to sit. Dressing up. Getting kids to dress up. More opportunities to be anxious and stressed than liberated and empowered. It is, of course, no ordinary Sunday.
Most of all, though, it is the day that we re-experience the reality and breadth of God's staggering love for us. I need to hear and to open myself to that message which brings such joy --- like finding out the person I desire most in the world loves me. So, too, the One who created me and sustains me loves me with passionate intensity. Maybe this year I will allow myself to be shocked, thrilled and transformed by this message. Bill Peatman writes from Napa. |