It’s Easter! The Day of Resurrection! In Christian churches around the world, bells toll sounds of joy, and sanctuaries are decorated with colorful flowers. Preachers muster enthusiasm while announcing the good news that Jesus Christ is risen. They explain the importance of today within the Christian tradition, marking THE EVENT that is the foundation of the religion. I’ve preached sermons like this. But today, my honest response to these Easter celebrations is, well, meh!
People engage in great debates. Some insist that Jesus literally rose from the dead as described in the Gospels. Some insist that Jesus rose in spirit and in the hearts of his followers. Some biblical scholars insist that there was no resurrection but that the body of Jesus was left hanging on the cross and eventually devoured by animals of prey. Still, others insist that Jesus of Nazareth never existed. My response to the debates is, yes, meh.
Perhaps it’s age. Or perhaps I’ve become a curmudgeon. Or perhaps, well perhaps it’s something else. Meh. I don’t really care what it is. But at this point in my life, I’m not concerned about the event of the resurrection of Jesus, or debates about Jesus, or much anything else. What matters to me is the experience of resurrection in my own life.
It isn’t difficult to see that there is a great deal of suffering in the world. Many people are caught in global crises, like the wars in Ukraine and Yemen and famines in Somalia and South Sudan. There are over 82 million people who are refugees today. Few are lucky enough to be received by a new country and resettled. Many live impoverished in camps. Still others die trying to escape their homelands, seeking a new life. Closer to home, there’s hunger, homelessness, sickness, and heartbreak. In the realities of life, what is there to celebrate at Easter?
It’s not that Jesus rose which matters to me today as a person of faith. Instead, the sacred story draws me to an important metaphor that does make sense as I look at the world. Rather than focusing on the resurrection, what makes sense to me is the cycle: life, death, and new life. I see that cycle around me in the seasons. I witness people who struggle and move from times in life that were often good, to huge disorienting upheavals, and in time, to new resolutions that embrace life more fully. In my own life, there have been times when all was well, then tragedy and pain, but out of the rubble, something new emerged.
In Holy Week, Christians focus on life, death, and new life for Jesus. We tell the story and celebrate events, but they aren’t connected to our lives. They seem abstract and anecdotal. These celebrations are all too often disconnected from our lives. I think what matters for most of us is having a belief, or a hope, that when the bottom falls out of our lives, we can experience something good once again. For me, that’s faith in the resurrection. That’s what it means to affirm that we rise.
Many people aren’t sure if life can be good for them again. The pandemic has caused a great deal of upheaval. People want to “return to normal” and many do that by ignoring what we’ve been through as well as the continued realities of COVID-19. Other people wonder in the face of grief, failed relationships, declining health, lost jobs and careers, and other tragedies of life if they can go on. Some have given up on faith because of the repeated moral failures evident in organized religion. Where is there resurrection that matters in their lives?
To the degree that resurrection is the ability and opportunity to engage deeply and meaningfully in life once again, yes, there can be resurrection. This kind of resurrection is part of the mystery of life we see around us in movements from life, through death, to a new kind of life.
For me, the importance of stories from the life of Jesus isn’t found in miracles, including the miracle of rising from the dead. Instead, what’s most important is that Jesus sought out life and what was life-giving, even when looking at the face of death. That inspires me to embrace life fully, and, yes, to share in resurrection. In that way, on this Easter day, I rise.
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