My
grandparents, William and Katie Belle, were remarkable people who lived in
remarkable times. Within their lifetimes the Wright brothers successfully
flew an airplane at Kitty Hawk. After thousands of years of human beings
trying to do that, my grandparents were alive and read about it in the
newspaper when it happened for the very first time. My grandparents were
still alive 65 years later when human beings set foot on the moon for the very
first time. And if they had stayed awake past 8:00 at night, which they
did not, they could have seen two human beings walking on the moon via a live
television transmission.
Now
as astounding as it is to have been alive for both the first flight at Kitty
Hawk and the first landing on the moon, unfortunately my grandparents did not
believe the latter had actually happened. Their theory was that it had
been staged at some remote location in Nebraska. My grandparents, who
never went outside the state of Georgia except the one time my grandmother went
to visit her sister in Jacksonville, did not particularly believe in Nebraska
either. But they found Nebraska a whole lot more plausible than people
walking on the moon.
Within the lifetimes of these two somewhat skeptical farm
people, the entire reality of the world was changed, both by the events they
had seen happen, and even more by the rate at which that change had
occurred. Thousands of years to get to the first short flight at Kitty Hawk.
Just 65 more years to get to the moon. It is no wonder at all that they
didn’t believe it.
Whatever the rate of change my grandparents had to deal
with, it is nothing next to the rate of change that our ancestors in faith must
have experienced in Christ. For century after century, the people of
Israel had waited for the messiah. And then, onto the scene comes Jesus
of Nazareth. It was a rate of change that made it difficult to
believe. And not surprisingly, as John puts, “although he had performed
many signs in their presence, they did not believe in him.”
We know something about so much change that it becomes
hard to believe, even if we see the signs live on television. When change
comes at a rate so fast we cannot take it in, it makes us anxious, unsettled,
and fearful. One of the ways human beings cope with so much change so
fast and the anxiety that comes with it is to cling to what has been instead of
what is becoming. It is the same with the great moon landing hoax brought
to us live from the most remote parts of Nebraska as it is with Jesus and his
signs brought to us live from the most remote parts of Galilee.
Any rate of change that any human beings have ever
experienced, like going form Kitty Hawk to the moon within one lifetime or even
having experienced the presence of God in the flesh in Jesus is nothing,
absolutely nothing, next to the rate of change we must experience in
Easter. In the instant of Easter, everything, absolutely everything
changes. Death is changed for life. Sin is changed for
freedom. Alienation is changed for reconciliation. In Easter,
everything, the whole creation, is made new. The powers, the
principalities, the forces that corrupt and destroy our humanity are
defeated.
Jesus himself is changed. Jesus is so changed in
the instant of Easter that Mary, meeting him in the garden on the first Easter
morning, mistook him for the gardener. Jesus is so changed in the instant
of Easter that some of his disciples walked the six miles from Jerusalem to
Emmaus with him and did not recognize him. And even after the reality of
the resurrection has begun to set in, Jesus is so changed that his closest
friends failed to recognize him calling them along the shore of the Sea of
Galilee. In the instant of Easter, everything, absolutely everything, is
changed.
As much as the historical events my grandparents
witnessed in just a single lifetime changed the very nature of the reality they
knew, as much as the signs the people witnessed within the lifetime of Jesus
changed the very nature of the reality they knew, the event of Easter changes
everything of the reality we think we know in the twinkling of an eye. It
is a change that is too unsettling, too disturbing, too unnerving to believe in
because it changes the very nature of reality as we know it. Easter is
intended to threaten our reality. It is no wonder that it makes us
fearful.
We
must choose whether to allow our fear to stand between us and the
resurrection. We cannot proclaim the resurrection and cling to what is
old, to a reality that no longer exists, to a reality before the
resurrection. What we have got to do is live into change because at least
until the kingdom arrives, change is the only way God has to work.
Peace,
+Stacy
