Easter Day – 2020 (Locked down due to Covid 19)
Matthew 28:1-11
Marian Free
In the name of God, Earth-Maker, Pain-Bearer, Life-Giver. Amen.
“Those who want only God’s will want nothing for themselves, except to carry out God’s will for themselves and for others. But those who operate through their own wills leave no space for God”.[1]
In The Christian Century this week Richard Lischer wrote: “What Jesus offers this Holy Week is not an escape from loss but a better way of losing.” “Not an escape from loss, but a better way of losing.”[2] In other years and in other settings, we have approached Easter with a sense of joy and triumph. We have made it through Lent, spent time in solemn reflection on Maundy Thursday and especially on Good Friday. On Easter Day then we feel free to reflect not on the lessons of Lent or on the sufferings of Jesus but on the wonderful act of God in raising Jesus from the death.
It is difficult in times of relative comfort to really grasp the significance of loss and suffering that lie at the heart of the Christian faith, to forget that the Saviour of the World gave up absolutely everything in order to faithfully answer the call of God, that the resurrected Christ was only possible because of the crucified Christ.
This Easter, when we are facing the loss of social contact, the loss of being present at our Easter services, the loss of freedom and, for many, the loss of jobs, income and businesses, it is timely to reflect that at the heart of the Christian faith is not victory but surrender, not triumphalism but deep humility, not even of resurrection but of the dying that enables resurrection.
All of this is evident in Jesus’ life, who from the moment of his baptism began to let go of his own ambitions and desires and to place himself wholly at God’s disposal. Instead of relying on himself and his own resources, Jesus emptied himself thereby allowing God to work in and through him. In fact, as John’s gospel makes clear, Jesus’ true divinity is revealed on the cross, the place of Jesus’ greatest suffering is the place of his triumph. It is on the cross that Jesus fully realises his destiny, his complete submission to God. The resurrection is a confirmation of Jesus’ victory, it is not the victory itself.
This time of isolation and deprivation is not of our choosing, but it does provide an opportunity to explore our own willingness (or lack thereof), to follow Jesus’ example, to let go of our need to be in control, our desire to achieve something or to be someone. Instead of seeing the closure of our churches as a deprivation, we can see this moment as an occasion to let go of the props on which we rely and to allow ourselves to trust completely in the presence of God.
It is precisely circumstances such as these that – at their best – throw us on the mercy of God and force us to learn that it is when we give up everything that we gain more than we could ever imagine and that when we surrender our lives to God that God can truly work in and through us.
Have a Happy and Holy Easter and instead of being sad about what we do not have let us rejoice in the lessons that this Easter has to teach us.
Every Sunday is a celebration of the resurrection. We will gather once more and how much will we have to celebrate!
[1] Marguerite Porete, in The Flowering of the Soul: A Book of Prayers by Women, Ed Lucinda Vardey, Australia: Random House, 1999, 300.
[2] https://www.christiancentury.org/article/2012-03/stripped-bare
Tags: cross, Easter, Holy Week, loss, surrender, triumph, victory
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