Scripture: Mark 16: 1-8
(1) And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and
Salome, bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. (2) And very early on the
first day of the week they went to the tomb when the sun had risen. (3) And they were
saying to one another, "Who will roll away the stone for us from the door of the
tomb?" (4) And looking up, they saw that the stone was rolled back; it was very
large. (5) And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed
in a white robe; and they were amazed. (6) And he said to them, "Do not be amazed;
you seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen, he is not here; see the place
where they laid him. (7) But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you
to Galilee; there you will see him, as he told you." (8) And they went out and fled
from the tomb; for trembling and astonishment had come upon them; and they said nothing to
any one, for they were afraid.
The prism is a familiar childhood toy. A prism can break normal light into all the
colors of the spectrum entreating the eye. A new reality is revealed. What child has not
asked "How can light, something you can't see except for its degrees of brightness,
be turned into such an amazing array of colors that delight the eye like a rainbow after a
spring storm?"
Two prisms positioned in just the right way can bend angles of sight and make a
periscope. With prisms you can peer around corners and over walls. Prisms twist and turn
reality in all sorts of fascinating ways that lead the mind to wonder, "What version
of reality are we seeing now?"
When you consider that the lens in our own eyes also refract light, you begin to wonder
whether the reality we see might wholly depend upon the lens through which we see it. When
we are born, we are handed a multiple set of lenses that shapes reality as we see it:
genetic inheritance, gender, a specific culture, the variable of our family environment,
and the specific experiences of our life journey. These constituents shape the way we view
reality. They are the prism whereby we either see a distorted, mangled world or a world
filled with wonders and creative possibilities.
There is another set of lens, a prism that is handed to Christians on Easter. This
prism of the resurrection provides a framework whereby everything else is seen. This prism
enables us to see, hear and act in ways whereby every moment is imbued with eternity and
the holy presence of God. As Paul Tillich put it, with Easter we see through the prism of
the "eternal now."
Long ago on that first Easter morning, three women approached the tomb where they knew
the Lord was laid to anoint the body with spices. The prism with which they approached the
grave was one of grief, a lack of strength and most of all fear. "Who will roll away
the stone?" they asked, the stone that walled in their hope, the stone that sealed in
their pain, the cold, hard stone that encircled them in fear.
But when they arrived at the grave, something had happened. Whatever actually happened
on that first Easter morning before the women arrived is beyond my grasp or, I believe,
anyone's. The literalist's insistence that Easter's meaning can be photographed misses the
point. Even the wizardry of 21st century special effects movie-making cannot begin to
capture the uncapturable of the resurrection. One can only be reduced to awe and silence
in the face of that transcendent moment and contemplate the effects Easter has produced,
the lives it has changed, and the course of history it has altered.
The testimony of the earliest followers about Easter is itself only symbolic talk about
the ineffable mystery and power that surged through their lives. A stone was rolled away,
a tomb was empty, and linen cloths were laid aside void of the body they had contained.
Later, the disciples excitedly proclaim, "We have seen the Lord."
"Christ is risen" we say and sing and proclaim, but I believe we do so not
because we have figured out what happened back then to him, but because we know what
happened to them: the changes that were wrought in the disciples, the movement that was
unleashed, the lives and societies that were changed.
"Christ is risen" we say and sing and proclaim because we know what happens
to us. Time and eternity are compressed and we see differently, believe differently, act
differently, live differently and yes, we die differently. The prism of Easter gives us a
new reality to view everything.
What is this prism?
With Easter our eyes are opened to dimensions that we ordinarily would not see, our
ears are opened to hear melodies we would not normally hear, our spirits are opened to
receive the holy presence of God in all of life and to live life fully, lovingly and
deeply. The stone is rolled away, the tomb is empty and the Lord is risen.
Easter opens our eyes to see in Jesus of Nazareth one so fully living in the presence
of God that human limits could not contain him. No fear of reprisal or persecution
squeezed his heart. No hatred from religious and political authorities intimidated him. No
faltering weakness from his followers blocked his sure path. Even death could not contain
him. This is the God who lived among us. This is the God who lives among us and so we say
and sing and proclaim "Christ is risen. Christ is risen indeed." We are given a
new set of eyes and ears to see eternity in the now so that we can get on with the
significant and delightful business of living and loving.
The women and men who followed Jesus had been driven by fear. They were driven by fear
for their own lives. They were driven by fear of what they knew: that life was unjust,
unfair and diseased. They were driven by fear of what they did not know: that their lives
might not get better, that the world might not get better and that tomorrow they might
die. They could not see or what they saw was so colored by fear that they could not see
the eternal One right before their eyes. It was not the Lord that was entombed it was
they. It is we.
Jesus came and lived among us to tell us that there is no reason to be afraid. The
worst problem is not sin, but fear. "Be not afraid," the angel tells the women,
"He has been raised." Fear is the perhaps the one unifying force that appears to
define our relationships with our families, colleagues, our world and ourselves. Everybody
is afraid of some private or public demon: money or its lack, fear of being left alone, of
being unpopular, fear of being recognized a fraud, fear of uncertainty, fear of being
hurt, fear of hurting someone else, fear of being irrelevant, and fear that life, itself,
might be too painful.
"Be not afraid . . . he has been raised." These are the empowering words of
Easter. Easter banishes fear, not death. We know we will die. Life is finite. We are given
only an appointed span of days. But we need not be afraid. It is not death that defeats us
- it's fear. And that curse is broken by Easter. The prison of fear is broken, the stone
is rolled away, the tomb is emptied and we know our Redeemer lives. Do I believe in life
eternal? Of course, I do.
But if Easter faith is about anything, it is about courage. Easter faith gives us the
prism to look beyond our fears and embrace life so that we can live life fully in the
eternal now.
The transcendent God is capable of being discerned behind every moment, every
conversation, every heartache, every triumph. I believe the Easter prism gives us the
lenses whereby life can be lived deeply, fully and completely. Love can be experienced
powerfully again and again, so that Jesus' resurrection doesn't just occur back then, but
again and again, in the eternal now.
So we live with fear defeated. We treasure every moment as a transcendent occasion. We
enter life deeply. We give our lives fully. We love unreservedly. We risk heartache in
order to know the depths and breadths of God's wonder. We heal. We fail. We risk. We pray
for peace. We practice justice. We choose integrity. We venture down new pathways of a
world yet unseen. We leap and sing and dance for joy. We die fully, because we have lived
fully. In such full living, we are embraced by eternity. This is the prism of Easter, the
prism of the resurrection faith.
Whatever happened back then led the men and women of the early church to believe that
the risen Christ lived among them and within them and through them. Life began with
Easter. May life begin now with all of you.
Christ has risen! Alleluia! Amen.
