His Mighty Resurrection

“… having in remembrance his blessed passion and precious death, his mighty resurrection and glorious ascension; rendering unto thee most hearty thanks for the innumerable benefits procured unto us by the same.”

Some things are just too big to see. At least, from our perspective. We are like ants wandering across a basketball court. We have no idea that there is a pattern, that these dark areas and these lighter areas form lines. We see no baskets or free throw lines. We have no idea what is in or out of bounds. It's too close and we are too small to see the obvious. For that kind of vision, you need different eyes and you need to get some distance.

That's why many of them missed it. They had never seen or heard such things, and although it was plainly foretold to them, it was too hard to imagine this was the fulfillment of the prophecies. He had said it Himself, several times, but they were too small, and too close to understand His meaning . The approaching ominous events of Holy Week, His arrest, trial, crucifixion, death and burial were all so staggering, they couldn't see beyond them. What could make any of this right? What could possibly make the story end happily?

The women were very brave. They would have to face the soldiers and convince them that it was proper to unseal the guarded tomb and allow them to make better burial arrangements for their Master. His body had been laid with love, but in great haste, that Friday afternoon. He was precious to them, and it pained their hearts to think of Messiah being stowed away in such a fashion. As they approached the tomb, the scene must have given them a growing and confusing wonder. The earth shook. The soldiers fainted or had run away. The great stone they would have needed help to roll away was already set aside and the door darkly open. Still, too close to the reality, they couldn't see what these things meant.

Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome walked hesitantly toward the tomb to look. Matthew records that the angel who'd opened the tomb sat on the stone door. They came inside, only to see what appeared to be a young man, a stranger, dressed in white, who told them: “Be not affrighted: Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: he is risen ; he is not here: behold the place where they laid him. But go your way, tell his disciples...” The one Mary and Salome ran back to town.

Mary Magdalene was still so despondent, John wrote, that she just sat down and wept. Looking again into the tomb, she saw two angels seated where Jesus' body had been placed. They asked her, “Woman, why weepest thou?” “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him.”

Then she turned and saw what she thought was a gardener. He also asked, “Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou?” “Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away.” He said to her, “Mary.” Finally her eyes were able to take it in. She knew Him. She recognized Jesus. “Master!” she cried and ran to Him, clutching His feet as though never to let Him go again. He warned her that she couldn't hold onto Him: He was still to return to His Father. She hesitantly went then, under His orders, to seek out the Apostles and let them know He was here. Later, Peter and John were seen running to the sepulcher.

You can't blame them for being slow to understand. This was overwhelming. You can't really blame so many of the Jews who didn't believe He was Messiah. There were so many prophecies, favorites of theirs, which He just wasn't fulfilling. Where was His kingdom? How had he set up a government? The cruel Romans were still in charge. For these kinds of fulfillment, they would have to wait until the end of time. But so many other prophecies had been acted out, yet they waited some other Messiah. John the Baptist himself held doubts, especially when he, the herald, was imprisoned.

You can understand the doubts and fears of the people of His time. But what kind of faith do we have in the Risen Christ? From our perspective, with the eyes of faith, what can we make of these mysteries?

The manner of His conception and birth show us that This is God's Son. He is Emmanuel , God with us . Every miracle He performed gave life abundantly: healed limbs, seeing eyes, clear speech, deliverance from devils, and even three raised from the dead, restored to this life again. With every healing came His forgiveness from sin and a new life to lead. His Transfiguration on the mount, appearing with Moses and Elijah, showed both His origin and His destiny. His own words had proclaimed His purpose, that He was sent to die brutally, but to rise again in three days. He could lay down His life and raise it up again , He told them. The sign they sought , He told them, could be seen in the experience of Jonah, who was drowned in the sea, held in the belly of a great fish for three days, but came forth alive on the shore again.

On the Sunday after His death, the tomb was empty. Angels proclaimed His Resurrection. He was seen and touched and heard from again and again. St. Paul records that “He was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: And that he was seen of Cephas (Peter), then of the twelve: After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles. And last of all he was seen of me also.” 1 Cor. 15:4-8 Eyewitnesses were not lacking. He ate with them, taught them on the road to Emmaus, fed them broiled fish, and let them feel His wounds. Finally, He commissioned them and ordained them, and was taken into heaven.

If anyone had evidence against these witnesses, they had ample opportunity to bring it out, to produce the dead Body of Jesus. Ridiculous tales of grave robbing were told, but the very military unit they had ordered to watch His grave authenticated His Resurrection and guarded His followers from the charge of stealing the Body. Although the Temple continued, with Herod, to oppress Jesus' followers, to imprison, beat, and kill them, their story never changed, not even at the point of their own deaths: “We saw Him and traveled with Him 40 days. He lives and because He lives, we shall live also. No one can stop this truth. None of us will truly die, for He is in us.”

The power of the Resurrected Life remained in His Church. From age to age, the transforming power of Jesus Christ has grown: as empires fell, as society changed, as science, mathematics and technology sought to dwarf mankind's faith, as wars and famines and plagues left millions dead— nothing has diminished the power of this testimony. Christ is Risen! (He is risen indeed.) Mankind's new philosophies, atheistic governments, attempts at developing new religions, the introduction of pagan and Springtime themes at Easter into our culture to eclipse the Christian meaning of this day, and the blatant attacks upon and attempts to erode Christianity from within have all failed to tear us from the power of Christ's Resurrection.

We meet on Sunday, the day of Resurrection , the Lord's Day , since that first week and first happy gathering with Jesus in the upper room. We celebrate the annual day of Resurrection at the time of the Jewish Passover since the 1 st century. Our regular participation in the Lord's Supper brings us to the terrible and wonderful acts of those three days. In the Eucharistic liturgy, we remember it all: we offer our sacrifice to the Father, with the bread and wine God gives us, consecrated to become Christ's Body and Blood, the sign of His New Covenant with us, and by which we renew His Resurrected nature in us. The priest at the altar of newly consecrated bread and wine says: “ We, thy humble servants, do celebrate and make here before thy Divine Majesty, with these thy holy gifts, which we now offer unto thee, the memorial thy Son hath commanded us to make; having in remembrance his blessed passion and precious death, his mighty resurrection and glorious ascension; rendering unto thee most hearty thanks for the innumerable benefits procured unto us by the same.”

His mighty resurrection : this is how we can eat and drink His Body and His Blood. These are not a dead man's meat. He is Risen to give us eternally His own nature to restore us, change us, make us part of the power of that glorious day. We rise from communion, full of His loving power to change our lives. In Baptism we drown like Jonah, our old lives behind us. But we rise up in the power of His Resurrection, with new lives to lead, new paths to walk, new hearts of love for Him, a new and everlasting joy. St. Paul wrote:

CHRIST is risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. 1 Cor. 15:20. Do you believe this? Christ is risen! He is risen! His mighty Resurrection seals this faith in a hope of eternity, a promise of everlasting purpose. We have a reason to live and, when we die, we have a reason to continue in hope. Nothing can rob us of it. No one can rightly deny it. Christ is risen.

PFH+