New Creation

Grace and peace to you from Christ, the Risen One.

I confess that the Easter season has become something of a confusing time for me.

That is because, as many of you have heard me say, my faith is constantly evolving.

My faith in God is never diminished but I am always taking in new information and assimilating that into my faith.

Some would find that unsettling.

They find the constancy of their faith to be comforting.

But, for me, lifelong learning is a core value.

So constantly examining my beliefs serves only to strengthen them.

I don’t claim that my journey of faith is better.

To each, as they say, their own.

At one point, I read that we often fail to fully experience Holy Week because we are in a rush to get to Easter.

And that made sense to me.

No one wants to think about death and crucifixion.

Frankly, the events of Good Friday are disturbing—if not downright traumatizing.

But I could see the point that the joy of Easter could be magnified by the sorrow of Good Friday.

So, I have tried to focus on the events of Holy Week—to truly pay attention to what was happening.

And to use that experience to provide context to Easter.

And then recently, I read that we too often look at Maundy Thursday through the lens of Good Friday.

That we miss the fact that the Last Supper was likely a Passover—or near Passover—meal.

And Passover is a festival—a celebration.

Passover meals are joyous—often raucous—affairs.

I think we tend to think of The Last Supper as a somber event, rather than a rowdy party amongst friends.

Jesus had been dropping hints—some would say not-so-subtle hints—that he was going to die.

But the disciples appeared unwilling or unable to comprehend that their friend—their rabbi—was going to leave them.

And, even if they were slowly starting to realize that his preaching and teaching was not going to end well for Jesus, there’s no reason to believe that they understood it was all going to end the very next day.

In addition to the fact that the Last Supper was a celebration—and likely not the least bit somber—there is the fact that it is equally possible to look at the Last Supper not as an end but as a beginning.

When Jesus instituted Holy Communion, he was indicating that everything was changing.

Our absolution no longer relied on what priests did in the temple.

Our redemption relied solely on God—what God has done, is doing, and will do out of God’s abundant love for us.

The events of Maundy Thursday are not an end—or, perhaps more accurately—not just an end.

The events of Maundy Thursday—and thus, of Good Friday as well—also mark a beginning.

The beginning of the new creation made possible by the death and resurrection of Jesus.

So, I’ve been struggling with how to incorporate this new understanding of Holy Week into my understanding of Easter.

It still makes sense to me that we should not rush through Holy Week in our anxiousness to get to Easter.

And it makes sense to me that we shouldn’t look at Maundy Thursday through the lens of Good Friday.

And perhaps we should even look at Good Friday through the lens of Maundy Thursday.

But what then is the impact on Easter?

How does the celebration of Passover and this idea of new beginnings give context to Easter?

In today’s gospel, the angels said, “Why do you search for the Living One among the dead? Jesus is not here; Christ has risen. Remember what Jesus said to you while still in Galilee—that the Chosen One must be delivered into the hands of sinners and be crucified, and on the third day would rise again.”

They had forgotten.

They had been unable to absorb what Jesus had told them.

They couldn’t see past the crucifixion.

It’s understandable.

They had witnessed a traumatizing horror.

Their master—their teacher—their friend—had been tortured and brutally murdered.

They approached the tomb looking through the lens of Good Friday.

They had forgotten the celebration of Maundy Thursday.

They had forgotten how Jesus had shared himself with them.

How Jesus had begun something new.

We have the benefit of seeing the whole picture.

We weren’t living it one day at a time like Jesus’ followers were.

We already know what came next.

We understand the new beginning Jesus put in motion.

We live in the new creation that was made possible by Jesus’ death and resurrection.

The new creation where death no longer has power over us.

The new creation where we are God’s people and God is fully present among us.

The new creation where God wipes away all our tears.

The new creation where death and mourning are no more.

The new creation where the old order has fallen.

That is what we celebrate today.

We celebrate the new creation.

We celebrate that the old order of things has fallen.

That is the joy of Easter.

In Bible Study, we recently finished reading “Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time”.

One of the fundamental ideas of the book is that there are two Jesuses—the pre-Easter Jesus and the post-Easter Jesus.

The pre-Easter Jesus is the historical Jesus—the human who lived and died in first-century Galilee.

The post-Easter Jesus is what Jesus became after his death and resurrection.

Without the post-Easter Jesus, the pre-Easter Jesus would have no meaning.

We may never even have known his name.

But because people continued to experience the risen Christ after his death—because we STILL experience Jesus today—that makes Jesus extraordinary.

That gives weight to his words and his actions.

That makes Jesus timeless.

That makes Jesus more than human.

We continue to experience the risen Christ.

Some—like Paul—experience Jesus as a vision.

But many hear “vision” and dismiss it as “not real”.

But Marcus Borg points out you can only be dismissive of a vision if you’ve never had one.

Because visions are life-changing experiences.

A vision is not a hallucination.

A vision is a spiritual encounter—and it is very real—as anyone who has had one would be willing to tell you.

Even in the absence of a vision, we still experience the risen Christ.

We experience Jesus at the Communion table.

We experience Jesus in the many ways that he heals us.

Our faith in Jesus comforts us in the most difficult times of our lives.

Our call to follow Jesus transforms us from self-centered beings into the Body of Christ—a community that loves and cares for one another.

We feel the presence of Jesus in so many real, tangible ways.

We shouldn’t “pooh, pooh” an experience of Jesus because it is not physical or not bodily.

Remember Jesus’ words to his disciple Thomas, “You’ve become a believer because you saw me. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

I think Jesus could just as easily have said, “Blessed are those who have experienced me—even without seeing my physical presence—and, as a result of that experience, have believed.”

But arguably the most important meaning that we can ascribe to people continuing to experience Jesus is that it makes Jesus a living reality in the present.

As a prelude to the sharing of the peace, I will say, “Christ is among us!”

And you will respond, “He is and always will be!”

Because we believe that the spirit of Christ is with us.

We believe that the essence of Jesus is alive in us.

Jesus’ love for God is alive in us.

Jesus’ love for neighbor—his deep commitment to community—is alive in us.

Jesus’ presence in us is what makes us the Body of Christ.

Jesus is still present, my friends.

We continue to experience him in many real and tangible ways.

That is what makes Easter joyous—a celebration of monumental proportions.

Happy Easter!

Christ is risen!

He is risen and he lives among us!

Hallelujah!

May this meditation on God’s word keep our hearts and minds on Christ Jesus. Amen.