Greeting Holy Peopleof God,
During the season of Lent we met John’s characters – Nicodemus, the Samaritan woman at the well, the healed blind man and Mary, Martha and Lazarus and thought about the risks they took and how these characters and their stories help us to believe. They build bridges with their experiences with Jesus and the questions they ask. Their experiences and questions help us to cross the bridge and come to Jesus at night or in the heat of the day, knowing that he will meet us there and walk with us. Jesus helps us to see more and to unwrap the grave clothes and think again about hearing Jesus’ voice calling to us even when we are dead.
Now in the 50 days of Easter meet the characters who help us explore Jesus’ resurrection and what that means for us today. I’ve started with the letter to the Colossians where Paul says, for we have died and our lives are hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3). I’ve been thinking about what it means that my life is hidden with Christ. And your life too is hidden with Christ in God.
If you read on in Colossians, setting our minds above and lives that are hidden with Christ gets further defined as living moral lives that are clothed with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness and patience. We are to cloth ourselves in love and dwell in God’s word, doing everything in the name of Jesus, giving thanks to God.
But I keep going back to the idea of our lives being hidden with Christ. And I just want to sit with that this Easter, these 50 days as I think about Jesus’ resurrection as deeply as I think about Jesus’ sacrifice, suffering and death on the cross. I have many more tools for thinking about Jesus’ death than I have for thinking about Jesus’ resurrection. So I turn to God’s word and John’s Gospel does not disappoint, for it too gives us 4 distinct stories of Jesus’ resurrection through Mary Magdalene, Thomas and Peter. These encounters can give us a foot hold as we ponder what it means for us to be hidden with Christ.
Mary Magdalene’s first response is not about Jesus’ resurrection but that the stone has been rolled away. Exploring the hiddenness with Christ may mean for us to take notice of what is happening in our own seeking and searching. And be prepared to challenge our first assumptions. Mary’s first assumption without looking into the tomb was that someone had stolen Jesus’ body. Why does Mary assume a missing body? Why not say the stone has been rolled away. Mary does succeed in getting Peter and the disciple whom Jesus loved to the tomb in her witness that day.
As we explore this Easter season, explore your assumptions about resurrection and new life. Think about how what we see, or what we are willing to see, influences what we believe. Think about how this stone is rolled away and how Jesus had to have the community roll the stone away for Lazarus.
Think about the foot race between Peter and the beloved disciple that invites us into the excitement of the day and the linens discovered but no body. This is different from Lazarus and his coming out of the tomb. Now Mary looks in the tomb. What does she hope to see? What does she expect to see? Both the angels and Jesus ask her why she is weeping and Jesus adds and whom she is looking for. It was not sight that brought Mary to recognize Jesus but rather hearing. When Mary heard Jesus say her name, she knew it was her teacher, Jesus. Just like Lazarus in death also heard Jesus call his name. What does it mean for you that Jesus calls you by name and in that calling affirms who he is, my risen Lord and Savior.
I hope you hear Jesus calling your name as you find yourself hidden in Christ with God.
Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,
Pastor Connie Spitzack
