Doing Something about Easter

Perhaps some of you have gone to Jerusalem.  If so, you have probably visited the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.  Without turning this into a Discovery Channel special on “Secrets of the Bible,” the Church of the Holy Sepulchre has a very solid claim to contain within its walls the site of the crucifixion and the tomb where Christ was buried and rose from the dead. 

So the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is generally understood to be the holiest spot in the world for Christians.  It is possible to go into the tomb through a small doorway and pray in in the very place in which it is likely that the body of Christ lay from Good Friday until Easter.  

Here is what is curious to me.  This is the holiest site in the Christian world, the place where the most important event in all of human history actually took place.  It has been revered by millions upon millions.  And yet, it is the one place in the world, the only one, in which Christians proclaim that God is not present.  The proclamation of the angel is emphatic and clear:  “He is not here.”  The faithful wait long lines to see the inside of the tomb, but the announcement of the Gospel is:  “He is not here.” 

Even the angel invited the women who came to the tomb that first Easter morning to come in—“Come, see the place where he lay.”  It was not to worship, though, or even to pray.  It was to prove a point.  “He is not here.” 

And the angel no sooner proves his point than he has instructions—“Go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised form the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.’”  In fact, it is not just a matter of go and tell the disciples. The disciples themselves are to go, too.  They are to go to Galilee.   And, if you think about it, once they get to Galilee, they get a further instruction to go.  “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.”  Go baptize and teach.  Go. 

We all know that the cross is not the end of the story.  We know that the resurrection comes after it.  But I think we do our faith a great disservice if we take Easter as the end of the story either.  Easter is no more the end of the story of Jesus than was Good Friday.  There is yet more to come.  There is still going to be done.  The angel tells the women to go tell the disciples.  The women tell the disciples to go to Galilee.  Jesus tells the disciples in Galilee to go baptize and teach.  In other words, it’s all about doing something about Easter.  Unless we do something about it, I’m not sure Easter matters very much at all. 

Easter is not the end of the story for us because it was not the end of the story for Jesus.  Easter is the beginning of something.  It is not the end of something.  Easter is an initiation.  It is not a completion.  Easter is a promise to be realized.  It is not an accomplishment to be admired.    Easter is an offer to us.  The part of the story yet to be written is whether we accept the offer or not.  And we can only accept the offer of Easter by choosing to do something about it.

If we do, we will go in the same way that Christ was known to go—to proclaim good news to the poor, release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, liberation to the oppressed, and the acceptable year of the Lord.  If we do not, well, we might as well be waiting in a long line for the chance to see the one place on earth where God is not present.  God is found by going, going out among the people Christ has given us to love and the creation Christ has given us to care for.   We are going to have to go if we are going to get to the resurrection.  We are going to have to go do something about Easter.

Peace,