If you and I had camped out at the garden tomb of Joseph of Arimathaea on Easter eve, what might we have seen? The witnesses of Scripture vary a lot. Paul tells us that the Risen Christ that he encountered was a spiritual body, with no physical existence, yet perceptible. Today's gospel from John, where Mary Magdalene is ask to stop clinging to Jesus, we might imagine his revived corpse. Other biblical narratives have him walking through doors, certainly a paranormal existence. Another gospel witness suggests Jesus was a shape-shifter, appearing in various forms to people over time.
The Farsi language has a tense called relational past which no other language has. That tense means that something that happened long ago continues to exist for us right into the present. Resurrection is like that. Marcus Borg speaks of it as trans-historical, an event that cannot be contained or defined in the space-time continuum which is temporal, for God's reality is eternal. In any event, the bottom line -- the common witness -- is that Jesus was experienced as alive and leading the Church then, just as much as his Spirit continues to guide us today. That was possible because God won the battle waged between good and evil on Good Friday at Calvary. God would not allow the Dark Side the final word. God refused to give up on us. That is good news!
Virtually every Episcopal congregation at one time or another seems to have at least one former member of the Eastern Communion of the Church. In another congregation I served, long ago and far away, there was a parishioner called Helen who was Greek Orthodox by background and a truly Christ-like servant of others, making a difference every day in the community, church, and in her family. Every Easter she would run up to me, saying Khristos anesti! (Christ is risen, in Greek) and wait with a big grin for the right response, Alithos anesti! (He is risen indeed). Each time she approached to tell me that Christ is risen, I would think: well, of course, I am looking at him.
The takeaway from our experience of Holy Week and Easter is this: Jesus' death because of human sin (in which we all participate) doesn't mean anything unless it inspires us to see the fullness of God's love on the cross and to respond by turning away from sin, moving from being part of the human problem to being part of the solution. Likewise, Christ's resurrection is pointless unless we are raised to new life -- the abundant life he has promised to those who follow in his way, who live his life, who are his presence in the world now. That means doing our part to build the Kingdom of God, that world in which God's will will be done on earth as in heaven. Because Christ was raised, we are raised; because he lives, we live anew.
Allelluia, Christ is risen!
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