Easter arrives in a just few days.
When I was a child, that idea was accompanied by the requisite amount of excitement, though not nearly as much as Christmas, of course. Most years my enthusiasm surrounded coloring Easter eggs, though I didn’t actually want to eat one. That was because I was far more interested in the candy ones that showed up – chocolate eggs or jellybeans. I also loved Easter egg hunts, though we didn’t seem to have as many back then as nowadays. But even more exciting than any of that was the possibility of something else. As I look back on it now, I don’t know what came over my family. Never what you’d call otherwise particularly adventurous or capricious, for some unknown reason (perhaps it was an unusual strain of spring fever) my mother got it into her head to get me a bunny one Easter, and a chick one other Easter. You can only imagine how unexpected and exciting the appearances of those live animals were! They were unprecedented in the annals of my family life, and I was overjoyed each time!
So imagine how unexpected it was for Jesus’ family, friends and followers when He appeared alive after they’d watched Him die on the cross and buried His corpse! Imagine how unprecedented that was in the annals of their experience! Imagine how amazed, excited and incredulous they were! That explains, no doubt, why they couldn’t contain themselves after Christ appeared to them. They couldn’t keep themselves from telling others about it. After all, amazement and excitement demands others to share it with. And incredulity compels reality checks with others.
Every time the Risen Christ appeared to people, they couldn’t help rushing to tell someone about it. According to Matthew’s Gospel, the Risen Christ appeared to Mary Magdalene and another woman named Mary (the mother of James). According to Mark’s Gospel, the Risen Christ appeared to Mary Magdalene and then to the apostles. According to Luke’s Gospel, the Risen Christ appeared to a man named Cleopas and his friend en route to Emmaus. Then when they scurried back to Jerusalem to tell the apostles, Luke says that Jesus appeared to all ten apostles (minus Thomas). According to John’s Gospel, the Risen Christ appeared to Mary Magdalene, ten of the apostles, then all of them again with Thomas in Jerusalem, and again on a beach in Galilee. Sometimes the people He met couldn’t believe their eyes, and sometimes they thought it was someone else or a ghost, but in the end they were all amazed, excited and simply needed to tell someone about it.
Jesus appeared to people on all sorts of occasions. Sometimes He appeared one on one. Sometimes He appeared to them two at a time. Sometimes He appeared to small groups. And at least once, we’re told, to a large group of as many as 500. Sometimes they were searching for Him. Sometimes they were grieving. Sometimes it was while they were hiding out in fear. Sometimes it was during a meal. Sometimes it was during work and other times during prayer.
Perhaps it’s precisely because the stories of those resurrection appearances are so scattered that some, these days, have difficulty believing that Christ ever really appeared to anyone after He rose again or even that He ever did. Some think that because resurrections are unprecedented, Jesus’ resurrection could never have happened. They argue that, since resurrections haven’t happened, they can’t happen and so Jesus’ resurrection never really did happen. Such persons say that either the disciples made it up or, because they seemed so motivated and convinced by it, the apostles must have simply thought He appeared to them – at times when they remembered Him or especially needed Him and felt His presence.
Frankly, I find that to be a false dichotomy. I don’t find those two ways of meeting the Risen Christ to be mutually exclusive at all. It’s the effect that’s the important thing. The important thing about any event, relationship, meeting or experience isn’t whether you have a photograph or videotape to show that it really happened, but what impression it makes on you – what memories you carry with you, what feelings are left and how they affect you as a person. For anyone to get bogged down in whether the early disciples actually could have photographed or taped the events they described during Jesus’ resurrection appearances is completely superficial, like a person so absorbed with photographing his child’s birth that he didn’t experience the miracle of participating in it.
The question isn’t, to my mind, whether the Risen Christ appears to people, but how. People still meet the Risen Christ in all sorts of ways and different contexts. It’s the same for us as it was among those first disciples. The Risen Christ still appears to us, one on one, when we’re alone, when two friends are together, or when small groups gathered to remember Him share stories and pray, as well as when large groups gather for worship and prayer. We can still meet Him when we’re grieving or afraid or hiding out by ourselves. We can meet Him when we’re walking by the seaside, watching a sunset, listening to the sounds of wind in the trees or birds calling to each other at dawn. We can still meet Him in worship or prayer or singing stirring songs of faith or in quiet meditation. We can still meet Him at Eucharist or over other meals shared with loved ones. We can still meet Him when we hear His voice in our minds or His love in our hearts. So the question isn’t whether we can physically meet Him, but how we meet Him and what the effect will be.
That’s why we offer so many very different liturgies during Holy Week. They’re meant to offer different contexts and opportunities for you to meet Christ. To miss them deprives us of opportunities to meet Him in different ways. On Palm Sunday, we get to remember and meet Jesus the triumphant king offering to lead us through life’s journey. On Maundy Thursday, we get to remember and meet Jesus the devoted servant offering to wash our feet, feed us and quench our spiritual thirst with His Cup. On Good Friday, we get to remember Jesus the Saving God who died to take our place, to make up the difference for us. At the Great Vigil of Easter, we get to wait by Jesus’ grave to meet the one we find there. On Easter Day, we get to meet the Risen Christ – the one who overcame to reveal to us the way to overcome.
In the end, Jesus seemed to think that the important thing was what effect His resurrection appearances would have. That’s why they took place. It wasn’t to make His followers feel better or His adversaries feel guilty. It was to verify that God was behind everything He taught them so that they’d go forth to teach others what He said. The effect that Jesus wanted His resurrection appearances to have wasn’t just to amaze, excite, confirm or comfort, but to motivate those early followers to spread the news that they met Him alive and the difference it makes. That’s why the Risen Christ appears to us too, not that the experience will end with us, but that it will motivate us to spread the news that He’s risen and what difference meeting Him makes. We wouldn’t be here if the first Christians hadn’t spread the news. We get to pass the word on to others. Alleluia, Christ is risen!
Affectionately In Christ,
Phil +