Of the four accounts of the resurrection in the Gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John – Matthew’s is the only one that actually portrays how the stone was rolled away from the entrance to Jesus’ tomb. In the other three Gospel stories, the stone was found to have been rolled away mysteriously in the dead of night, no one knew how.
But Matthew’s account is very direct, dramatic and happens in the broad daylight of dawn: “And suddenly there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning and his clothing as white as snow.” (Matthew 28:2-3)
Another curious feature of Matthew’s telling of the story is that Jesus did not walk out of the tomb once the stone was rolled away. When the angel moved the stone, Jesus was not in tomb, and the angel said to the women, “I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has been raised, as he said.” (Matthew 28:5b-6a) How, then, did Jesus find his way out from having been entombed in stone?
Clearly, as Matthew conveys it, the resurrection of Jesus Christ is not business as usual. It is not something natural – rather it’s un-natural, supernatural even.
And this resurrection drama had quite an effect. In response to the earthquake and the angel’s dazzling appearance, the guards, the soldiers of the mighty Roman empire, the greatest military on earth at the time, were overcome with fear; they “shook and became like dead men.” (Matthew 28:4)
So much for the power of the Roman empire. That power, symbolized by the guards, was shaken, neutralized as if dead. Think about the implications of this for a moment. The Romans used a tool of execution – crucifixion – to demonstrate the deadly reign of empire. They had the monopoly on death, who lived and who died. And yet, the joke’s on the empire. God used the cross and the ways of empire to render imperial power powerless such that death would not have the last word. This same message pertains to empires today and their wielding the forces of death in war and violence of the state. Their days are numbered is what the resurrection of Jesus Christ proclaims.
Again, the resurrection of Jesus Christ interrupts business as usual. This is true in terms of human powers, but it’s also true in terms of the whole orders of nature. In fact, Christ’s resurrection turns the natural order of things upside down. The resurrection transforms nature. Again, the resurrection is un-natural; the resurrection is supernatural.
Why? Because the resurrection of Jesus Christ is life coming from death. That just doesn’t happen in nature, especially after three days of being dead in a tomb. Resurrection is not resuscitation. Nature says, you live, then you die. With Jesus, he died and then he lived. It’s life from death, not life from life.
Which is to say, as beautiful as all the flowers are and the colorful Easter eggs, and the Easter bunny – all of these symbols we associate with Easter just don’t quite cut it in terms of conveying life from death. Flowers quickly fade. Lilies become especially ugly after only a few days. Eggs are life from life. Bunnies are all about fertility, procreation in abundance. These are lovely symbols of nature, life from life, but not life from death. Sorry, but we need different symbols to really reveal what the Resurrection of Our Lord is all about. Life from life tells only a partial story. Life from death just doesn’t happen in the natural order of things.
Again, on the Day of Resurrection, we’re dealing with something entirely different from usual human experience as we know it in nature. And we cannot domesticate it. We cannot tame it. We cannot understand it. Let me say that again: repeat the phrase.
We can only, in faith, confess it, as we heard in today’s first reading in Acts when Peter said, “You know the message, preaching peace by Jesus Christ – he is Lord of all…. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree, but God raised him on the third day…. [Christ] is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead.” (cf. Acts 10:36-42)
This is the faith we confess to the powers that be in our own versions of empire today: Jesus Christ, him dead, him raised “is Lord of all.” No kings. No presidents. No earthly powers and principalities. No. Jesus Christ is Lord of all. That’s a radical claim in the face of the powers and principalities of our age.
And this is the faith we also confess in relation to the orders of nature: Jesus Christ is Lord of all creation. Because of this fundamentally new, supranatural reality we acknowledge with the Apostle Paul that “as many of you were baptized into Christ, [you] have clothed yourself with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” (cf. Galatians 3:27-28)
This new reality of the resurrected Christ has enormous implications for our understandings of the so-called natural order – about sexuality and gender identity, about race and ethnicity. There is no room for white supremacy or racism in any faith that believes in the resurrected Christ. There is no room for misogyny or patriarchalism when we confess that Christ was raised from the dead.
Moreover, there is no room likewise for homophobia and transphobia. There is only room for a transformed view of nature that acknowledges the unity and inter-relatedness among all of God’s creatures and creation. We are all one in Christ Jesus. Again, resurrection is not about business as usual.
Which is to say, we’re called upon to abide by Paul’s wisdom expressed in today’s second reading in Colossians: “If you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on the things that are above, not on the things that are on earth.” (cf. Colossians 3: 1-4) In short, after the resurrection, we see with God’s vantage point that our old understanding of the natural order of things is transformed.
Indeed, friends, we have in fact been raised with Christ, having died to sin and having been raised to Christ in baptism. And living out our baptismal covenant and life means welcoming and embracing those whom the old natural order would exclude. Our baptismal calling also means resisting the powers of empire in all its manifestations. This welcome and embrace are the fruits of our seeking and setting our minds on things that are above, that is, on the divine vantage point concerning human history in the light of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
And remember, the power of the Resurrection doesn’t just leave us in fear, shaken and paralyzed like dead men. No, not at all. Even though the earth shook and an angel appeared like lightning all dazzling white, all of heaven came down to earth again as the women left the tomb, yes, with fear, but also great joy. It was then that the resurrected Jesus, who apparently made his way through the solid rock of the tomb and the stone which closed off the entrance, this supernatural Jesus appeared to the women suddenly and in an intimate and personal, non-threatening way, he uttered one little reassuring word: “Greetings!” Which is better translated, “Rejoice!”
And there’s more in that one little word. In Greek, its root is the word joy and serves as the root word also for grace and generous giving and living, and giving thanks, and our beloved word Eucharist, the meal of resurrection where the risen Christ is made known to us in the breaking of the bread even today. One little word carries all this meaning.
One little word – “Rejoice!” – uttered on the sweet lips of Jesus, our brother, our friend, our Savior, our Lord and God, in essence proclaims the entire gospel message, in short, that our joy is that by God’s grace, death does not have the last word. And this one, little word, for which we give hearty thanks, has empire and those clinging to old understandings natural law shaking in their boots. One little word subdues them. For alleluia, Christ is risen. Christ is risen indeed. Alleluia. Amen.
