If you have trouble recognizing the risen Christ....
Take heart, it seems that just about no one who was actually there did either. After reading the four gospel accounts this morning I notice that while the accounts are fairly varied on their details, they all seem to emphasize the difficulty people had recognizing Jesus.
The eyes of expectation make it difficult to see sometimes.
We think we're seeing the world "realistically" and in the process miss important things. It seems that none of the visitors to empty tomb expected him to be alive. Dead bodies just don't do that, and I suspect that we scientifically minded folk would find the idea of resurrection even more impossible than the people in the scripture stories. But it happened that day, and people who knew him and loved him couldn't, "see for looking" as the old phrase goes.
Despair does that to us.
It tells us what is and isn't possible. Despair shapes our perception so strongly that we have trouble seeing things any other way. Despair tells us that the promises made to us are too good to be true. Despair tells us that we are seeing the world for how it really is. Despair makes it hard to believe a story about a resurrected Messiah, and leads us to wonder if just maybe the wishful thinking of ancient Hebrews got them telling a story about Jesus that gives hope but couldn't have actually happened.
Despair causes us to miss the signs of resurrection in our own lives.
I don't know much about physical resurrection of dead bodies. But I do know this - people come back to life emotionally and spiritually on a regular basis. Ordinary folks have the most extraordinary stories of coming back to life from loss, addiction, suffering, trauma, and personal brokenness. When we consent to it, God changes us.
I live in Southern Ontario - where Easter mostly happens during cold and dreary days of a spring that promises to come but hasn't yet shown up. When we use the rebirth of natural life as a metaphor for resurrection at Easter, it can be rather unconvincing for us as we scrape frost from the windshield and put on warm winter clothes. But where eyes cannot see, a reality is occurring beyond vision. And the despair of a bleak and chilly Easter morning is quelled only when we remember that resurrection is the unstoppable promise of a God who is difficult to recognize at times.
This morning, may you recognize the signs of resurrection. Whether it be joyful music or a gentle stillness that reminds you - death is not the final answer. The parts of you that seem as dead as the trees and grass are waiting to burst forth with life! Don't allow your expectations about how the world "works" to cause you to miss the miraculous unfolding of hearts and minds and lives that are being brought back to life. This victory over death is so much bigger than a physical resurrection. It is the promise that new life is possible in the most unlikely of circumstances.
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