Reflection
For me this has been a very different ‘Holy Week’. There have been no shared gatherings, where the focus has been the events of this last week of Jesus’ life, concluding with a Maundy Thursday Tenebrae Service / Service of the Shadows preceding Good Friday. Good Friday has often begun with a shared breakfast, followed by community observance like a walk of witness through the streets or up the mountain, or a service in one of the neighbourhood Churches. Does this ring true for you?
As I’ve pondered on the events of this week and the message of the crucifixion, with the resurrection that was to come, my thoughts have centred on the range of contradictions and contrasts that have been laid before me. Our tradition of the resurrection is described in utter clarity – yet it’s surrounded in mystery. The message of the cross is simple – yet complex. The message contains elements that are regarded as absolutes – unshakable things – yet they only give provisional answers to real questions. This is so true as I read Matthew’s account. At the dawn of what we now call Easter Day, Matthew has two women, Mary of Magdala and another Mary making their way to inspect the tomb. What did they expect to find? We don’t know the answer, but Matthew tells us that their visit was accompanied by an earthquake, the stone was rolled back by a startling angel, and the guards posted there by the religious authorities lay incapacitated. That angel gave the two Marys a charge – go and tell what you’ve seen: Jesus has risen from the dead and has gone ahead of you to Galilee. Wow!! How startled they must have been. They did go and tell the disciples.
On that first Easter day a message was proclaimed to those who had been closest to Jesus. When we continue to read the accounts of what subsequently happened, we discover that what the disciples had experienced while they ‘walked’ with Jesus was not immediately fully understood. It took an encounter that two of the disciples had with Jesus (who they did not recognise) as they journeyed on the road to Emmaus, to bring to light a new-found excitement. As I pondered on all of this there came a realisation. The Easter message is that resurrection is not simply about life after the grave … it is an ever-present reality that the resurrection is with us each day … it’s about the opportunity to discover and experience heaven while we live!
How is this? How can this be? The answer is in how we view our word and the relationship we have with our God, those that we know best, and indeed all of humanity. The message of the cross, both its horror and its majesty, is that we humans and God have been brought together; that love will overcome adversity and that God’s salvation goes right to the core of our need for forgiveness, our need to be reconciled, our need to put things right, our need to be accepted and to be loved no matter what.
Ernest Hemmingway in his book Capital of the World tells a story set in Spain: the story of a father that has not seen his son, Paco, for many years. At a much earlier time they had a humongous argument and Paco had run away. The father really wanted to see his son again, to put things right, so, he put an advertisement in the local newspaper. The advertisement simply stated – ‘Paco meet me at the Hotel Montana at noon on Tuesday. All is forgiven. Love Papa.’
The Hemmingway story goes on. In Spain, Paco is a common name, and when the father turned up at the hotel that Tuesday there were 800 young men, all named Paco … and all waiting to be reconciled with their fathers. There was only one father there that day. He embraced not only his own son, but all the sons there. In this way this story tells the Easter message. In the Hemmingway story there is one father wanting reconciliation with his son. That father took the first step towards providing new hope and new life for his boy. The Easter message, we hear again today, is that God provided new life and new hope for all – for each one as an individual and for the community that each person interacts with.
Today, each one of us will mark Easter Day in our own way. In each of our ‘bubbles’ the experience will be different. The Service of Holy Communion often joins worshippers together on Easter Day. In each Communion Service we claim the right to break down any barrier that has been erected between ‘me and my neighbour’, and between ‘me and my God’. At that point we are not trapped in the memories of ‘Friday’. We are an Easter People!
On Easter Day we face many invitations. One invitation is to seek reconciliation with our neighbour. Reconciliation means restoring relationship. Perhaps that neighbour – like the son Paco – may find assurance or reassurance in a simple gesture, a gesture that does not demand compliance with a particular set of behaviours … the ‘my way or the highway’ approach. That gesture is simply to open the door. The other, no less important, invitation is to restore a relationship with God. In taking the step to reconcile with our neighbour we take the first step towards reconciliation with God.
We meet in spirit with each other this morning. We know that something remarkable happened on that first Easter Day: something beautiful and powerful, something as life-changing today as it was for those disciples who heard from the two Marys that Jesus was not in the tomb – he had risen and was going before them into Galilee.
On this day, let us for a moment be still and hear these words of invocation:
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Be still and know that I am God. I am the Lord that heals you. In you, O Lord, I put my trust. |
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And we pray …
“Gracious and life-giving Lord, on this Easter Day we mark a new beginning. Thank you for pointing us to a new way of living, of living with ourselves, our neighbour and our God. Our prayer is brought to you with confidence this day and always.
Amen”