Easter day

The words spoken to the women at the Easter Tomb: ‘Do not be alarmed, you are looking for Jesus who has been crucified.  He has been raised he is not here. They said nothing to anyone for they were afraid.’

A reporter asked a woman why she wanted to be an embalmer. ‘Because, she said, ‘I enjoy working with people’. Embalming the body of Jesus was the one reason for Mary Magdalene and the other women to be out so early on the morning of the first day of the week. Jesus was dead – there was no doubt about it. They had witnessed the unique horror of his crucifixion. And the crushing sorrow and desolation in their hearts was proof that the worst that could happen had happened. All that was left to be done now was a last expression of love for Jesus – to embalm his lifeless body. That was what they expected to do. The last thing they expected was what they actually discovered. ‘Who will help us roll the stone away from the entrance to the tomb? They thought they had come to a place of death. What they discovered was the in breaking of a completely new life. He is not here in this place of death. He has been raised.

Now it’s important to notice the reaction of those women at the tomb. It isn’t always possible to predict how people are going to react to strange events and circumstances is it? Some people who seem to be very ordinary and timid for most of the time turn out to be absolutely superb in a crisis. While the person we all thought to be solid and brave goes to pieces completely. What about the reaction of the women at the tomb? You might think that the reaction of these women would be absolute joy at the news of their Lord’s resurrection. Amazement you could understand of course – in the ordinary way of things dead men don’t rise. But this was a message from God. Jesus had been raised – so why weren’t they joyfully amazed. You would think that they would be dancing with joy. Instead of that we are told that they were fearful. Well that’s putting it mildly. St Mark tells us that they were seized with terror. And that is how St Mark ends his Gospel with the women at the tomb in fear.

Now fear is debilitating it prevents us doing things. A hospital administrator was startled to see a patient fleeing out of the operating theatre his loose hospital gown flapping in the breeze behind him. The administrator stopped the patient and said ‘Would you mind telling me why you are runninng away from the operating room in such obvious fear.’ The patient looked at him with startled eyes and said: ‘It was because of what the nurse said.  She said be brave it is only an appendectomy it’s quite a simple operation.’ The administrator said.  ‘Well that’s right it is quite simple there’s nothing for you to worry about.  I would think that would allay your fears. ‘Well it would’ said the patient, ‘Except the nurse wasn’t talking to me she was talking to the surgeon’.

There was of course a great deal of debilitating and crippling fear around at that first Easter. Fear caused Peter to deny Jesus. It caused the disciples to desert him. The Chief Priests were fearful of Jesus. I suspect even Pontius Pilate was afraid of him. But I think that the fear of those women at the tomb was fear of a different kind. It was an awe-filled fear of what God had done in raising Jesus. Fear of what it might mean for them. If Jesus is raised then whole new layers of meaning and experience are likely to open up. Wonderful possibilities. A new world even. And if Jesus has been raised then God’s new Kingdom has begun; this is a new world. A new life. If Jesus is raised then all bets are off. If this can happen anything can happen. And that is fearful. When you are faced with a new world suddenly the old one doesn’t seem so bad! ‘What on God’s good earth will happen next!’  You can hear those women complaining. Well the women were told what was to happen next. ‘He has gone into Galilee there you will see him’. In other words if Jesus is risen there is a job to be done. Get back to Galilee and get on with it and you will find that he is with you.  That was the message.

If the kingdom of God has begun, if this new day has dawned if this new life is a reality then there is work for us to do too. The risen Christ wants us to work with him to build the Kingdom begun at Easter. But as at the first Easter there is fear around.  All kinds of fears.  We fear the breakdown of community. Fear of young people with knives and little hope. The fear and the constant threat of terror. Fear for the financial future for ourselves and for our country. Mark’s Gospel message of the resurrection is that Jesus leads us through our fears to face and to tackle the job in hand and shows that it can be done for he is with us. His Kingdom of Peace has already been inaugurated. It augers well for the future. But in the meantime in his risen power we are called to work for the coming of that  kingdom begun at Easter. To pray for it and to live in hope. To help build community and bring people together. We need to demonstrate a Christianity which is broad and open and welcome  accepting. A faith that is prepared to work with other people of faith to build a better safer world; that is the only way to prevent us from destroying each other in a world of diversity. In the face of the financial crisis we have to learn to live more simply and with much more openness and honesty. We have to recognise that the unregulated market is a human construction and as such is susceptible to sin. We know that now to our cost. But from within our fears for the future we need to build a new way of living – less greedy, less materialistic with more sharing and more equal. In other words more spiritual, more Christian. I think that it is already beginning to happen. People are beginning to realise - I think that we all realise that we can’t go on the way we have been. Facing up to our fears for the future is the first step towards redeeming the future.

The Church has something to say. All of a sudden the Gospel of Jesus and his way of living is highly relevant. And in the church. Well the Church has its fears too. We Christians have our fears. The fear of speaking out for Christian truth and Christian values in our country lest we be ridiculed or upset someone. Yes of course we need to speak with humility but also with the conviction that we have something to say. We live with the fear of being swamped by the tide of secularism and indifference that surrounds us. That’s a fearful prospect but it won’t happen if we confront the issues before us and tackle them. We can only do that in power of the risen Christ who promises to be with us to strengthen us. So maybe the fear of extinction could bring us back to where our only hope lies. Not in ourselves but in the presence of the Risen Lord of the Church and the promise of his spirit to do the job he calls us to do. Or we can let fear of the future and the changes it requires of us paralyse us and so do nothing – that would be the way to extinction.

I think it was Churchill who said that all we have to fear is fear itself. Well certainly fear is crippling. And each of us I guess has our fears to face up to. The psychologists tell us that all our fears are reflections of that one great primordial fear which is the fear of death. And precisely there and at that point Jesus and his resurrection come to our aid. For he has been there before us. He has been through death and has conquered death. He has risen through it to give us hope and courage and a sure faith for our own future and the future of our loved ones – a life with him in this world and in the next. You see I think that Mark very deliberately ended his Gospel at that point with the women at the tomb in their fear. Because he is saying to us. ‘It’s over to you now.’ Jesus has been raised. His kingdom has begun. But the story goes on and it’s up to us to write the succeeding chapters. There’s work for us to do; work for you to do. Conquer your fears by your faith in the Risen Christ and follow him wherever he leads you. He has gone before us and is with us. For Christ is risen. He is risen Indeed. Alleluia!