PaddlingPadre

Today, we stand in the aftermath of something remarkable. Of course, the events to which we have already been witness this week are even in their own right remarkable – on a merely human level we have seen the drama of betrayal and suffering and death, the anguish of a grieving mother, the disappointment of all those who had hoped that Jesus might be the one to redeem Israel. All of this makes for a moving tragedy.

But of course, the story of Jesus is not in the end a tragic one, and in him there need never again be a story that ends in tragedy, for something far more remarkable has happened. The Resurrection of Jesus from the dead, the victory of Christ over the grave, is an event that changes the shape of the world, that changes the trajectory of every human life and dramatically broadens the horizon of human hope.

For even within scripture, one gets the sense, in the Old Testament, that there is hardly more to be hoped for than prosperity and a long life on the land. Gradually, through the prophets and the painful experience of the exile, this begins to change, and mankind begins to hope for something more, something better than this life of wandering in a valley of tears. But it is only here, today, on this morning that, the defeat of death is finally assured, and the invitation made to us, through Christ, to enter into that life which is true life, that life which in Christ’s dying has destroyed death itself.

This remarkable victory over the grave is thus utterly transformative, and indeed it is a sort of new creation. No longer is it the Sabbath that demands our observance, but rather it is today, the Lord’s Day, the day of the resurrection and the new creation, on which we worship. In the past, we saw Peter and the other disciples flee from the Lord in fear and in confusion, but now we see them boldly proclaiming the Risen One and suffering gladly for that proclamation, even to the point of death. And once we lived in fear, but now what is there for us to fear? – for if we belong to Christ, and if not even death can separate us from Christ who has conquered death, then what could we possibly fear? What story could there be that does not ultimately end in joy, so long as we hold fast to Jesus?

And that perhaps is the great upshot of the resurrection for us. Because as stupendous as it is that a man literally rose from the dead two thousand years ago, we are not here simply to marvel at an amazing event, as if it were some remarkable exhibit in a museum. For he who died and then rose was no mere man, but was the Son of God, the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity, who by dying and rising in his assumed human nature has opened for us the way to eternal life, a life to which we have access, even now, through the sacraments that make that life present to us, such that if we remain in that life through those sacraments, then whatever road our life may take, whatever sufferings through which we may wander, we will find that our road will always lead us back to here: to the joy of the resurrection, to victory over death and suffering, to the glory of God and the satiation of every desire.