Easter Spiritually Considered

In the thinking of many Christians, the cross overshadows the empty tomb.  They emphasize that Jesus had to die for our sins, that his crucifixion buys our salvation from those sins.  It is for them a powerful and profoundly meaningful view of the cross.  The resurrection, from this vantage point, has a somewhat secondary role to play.  It proves the fact of Christ's divinity, that he is the Son of God and thus confirms the precious sacrifice God made in Christ on the cross.  The resurrection, that is, bears witness to the power of the cross.

There are many faithful Christians, however, for whom this traditional view of the death of Christ on the cross is no longer powerful or profound.  It is based on ancient concepts of animal sacrifices to appease angry gods and of the scapegoat, which is sacrificed to pay for the sins of the person making the sacrifice.  Such ancient practices and beliefs have lost their compelling power for most people today and, if anything, only serve to remind us of how violent life was in ancient times.  For these Christians, it is not the cross but the resurrection that lies at the heart of the Christian faith.

For Jesus' disciples, in fact, it is clear that it was not the cross that blew their minds.  They may not have expected that Jesus would die on a cross, but in hindsight it was hardly surprising that he did.  The thing that changed their lives was their experience with the risen Lord.  They were not animated by the cross but by the resurrection.  In the resurrection, God transcended the violence of the cross, changed despair into hope, and showed the disciples the way into the future.  Easter, thus, overshadowed Good Friday by transforming one rabbi's violent senselessness death into the hope for new life.  The crucifixion was but a prelude to the resurrection.

Mary Magdalene,is a case in point.  Her hope was not reborn when she stood at the foot of the cross and witnessed her rabbi's death.  The risen Jesus, instead, rekindled that hope when he spoke her name there by the empty tomb (John 20:11-18).   In a violent world seemingly dominated by a multitude of forms of death, death did not and does not have the last word.  From our own lives we know that hard times and difficult experiences, when handled prayerfully and humbly, lead us to new beginnings.  Time and again, we find God's Spirit prompting us, guiding us, renewing us, and carrying us forward.  So that while we do have our crosses to bear, our salvation is not in them but in the transforming power of God in Christ, which takes us from death to life.

That is to say, it is not by the "blood of the Lamb" that we are saved.  Our salvation, rather, is through our faith in God in Christ, the One who Brings Life out of Death.  It is the risen rabbi's voice not his crown of thorns that calls us to life abundantly lived.  Amen.