There was a question asked at a church anniversary. The speaker began with this question: “Is this a backward day or a forward day?” Her point was, is this a day we look backward and pine for the good ‘ole days; the good ‘ole days that have passed through the filter of our selective memories where we sift out all the bad and romanticize the good? Or is it a forward day where we celebrate this present moment and look forward to the future with anticipation to the new opportunities that are just waiting to be embraced?
That question is a good question for us to ask ourselves.
A few weekends back, many people celebrated the church holiday called Easter. What makes this day so glorious is that it’s a day to rejoice, not reminisce. It is not a day we look backward to with nostalgia, but a day we are fully alive in the present and look to the future with a sense of hope and anticipation.
I stood at church on Easter Sunday, declaring that the truth of the resurrection is not about proving something that happened in the past, but the truth of the resurrection that lies in our experience of it in the present – and the power it has to move us into the future with new expectations. It is not a day to remember a past event, but to celebrate a present reality!
This past month, I took the time to read the resurrection story from all of the gospels, and reflect on the various accounts from Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Not even the gospel writers could all agree in reconstructing the resurrection as a past event. Read the gospel stories some time. I mean really read them.
I was struck by the fact that each gospel resurrection story is unique and different. The gospels were written after Jesus was gone, over a 30-40 year period beginning in the seventh decade of the first century. Their diversity tells us that the gospel writers weren’t interested in just reconstructing the past, but each writer shaped the story in order to apply it to their present reality. The stories are testimonies to the spiritual and theological meaning Jesus had for their individual lives.
One thing they all had in common is they experienced Jesus as a present reality, not a past memory. So, the question is: “What did the resurrection mean for them in telling the stories the way they did? How did the resurrection empower them in their present and move them into the future”?
As I thought about the resurrection accounts, I was struck by something I hadn’t quite seen before. The resurrection affects all of us differently (just like Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) and how powerful it is to realize, and then to own, what the resurrection means to us, individually.
For example, in the first century: The resurrection changed their expectations about women. One thing all four gospels have in common, even though the details vary greatly, is that women were the first to tell the resurrection message. This was a radical and outrageous thing in a rigidly patriarchal culture. In a culture where women were only known through their husbands, these women of the gospels stand on their own and are no longer anonymous but named.
The question for us today is; who are those in our world who are marginalized by the short-sighted expectations of culture and religion? What about youth, boomers, seniors? How sad that any group would feel alienated by culture and religion, but it happens.
I’m thrilled that I’ve recently been invited to speak at the Palomar College LGBTQI group – with the request being, to let that group of precious young people know there’s a place for them in a community of faith! Let’s be guided – and even informed – by resurrection expectations!
Secondly, the resurrection changed their expectations about the Jesus way of life. Jesus had invited his disciples to follow him into living his way of life: the way of grace; the way of compassion; the way of pursuing justice for the oppressed; the way of inclusive love – and what had it got him? Killed by crucifixion! Why should they follow Jesus? After all, look what happened to him.
But for many in those early faith communities, the resurrection validated Jesus’ way of life as the authentic way. The resurrection convinced them that Jesus’ way was God’s way, so much so, that in the face of hardship and persecution, they “took up their cross” and continued the ministry of Jesus by boldly living his life in the world – no matter what the cost! Wouldn’t it be wonderful if all of the “followers of Jesus” stayed with the teachings of Jesus?
Lastly, the resurrection changed their expectations about living in the tyranny of the past. In my own life, and in the lives of many I’ve counseled and prayed with, I’ve experienced that the past is not always past, but that the past can tyrannize the present.
I venture to say that many of us live our present lives in the grip of old failures and regrets, old wounds that have never healed. Their influence on us can so limit and affect the way we live our lives in the present.
I think of Peter who denied Jesus. In an intense, but yet tender encounter in John’s gospel, Peter meets the risen Jesus on the beach, and is forgiven, and set free from the oppressive power of his past denial. Then what happens to Peter? He’s launched into the future … catapulted! This is John’s way of saying that the living Power sets us free from past things that limit us from living life fully now. This is good news!
What makes this day so glorious is that we’re here to rejoice in a present reality, not reminisce a past memory; not a day we look backward with nostalgia, but a day we are fully alive in the present and look to the future (even to eternity) with hope and anticipation as we participate in the life of Jesus by shaping our lives around resurrection expectations.
