Death is not the end

My sisters send Lori and I cards for most every holiday and our birthdays.  They're good at that.  They remember stuff like that.  And they find the best cards ever, always funny or beautiful, always appropriate.

We just got their Easter card.  It's crazy funny (if you have a sense of humour like mine …).  The card was great, but what they wrote on the inside was even better: "some cards are worth repeating, like Easter itself!"  They thought that they had already sent this one sometime in the past, I guess.  I certainly didn't remember it, but, like I said, they're really good at this card thing.

Or they knew that I'd appreciate the deeply insightful theological commentary that's right in tune with my thinking this Easter.

It's worth repeating.  Oh, yes it is.

Let's put aside the chocolate, the eggs, the bunnies, the big dinners, even the great cards, for a minute.  You know, all those things that we use to celebrate "The Day" we call Easter.  Let's tell the story.

Only days after being welcomed to Jerusalem by adoring crowds, Jesus is suddenly, shockingly, unbelievably dead, killed in a cruel and humiliating manner.  His closest followers are in hiding, fearful for their own lives, grieving the end of their life with Jesus.  But it's not the end.  After the sabbath, Mary says she's seen Jesus alive, others say the tomb was empty and then Jesus appears to all the disciples.  He's alive, just as he promised.  And Jesus' followers tell the story and share his teaching - his life - with everyone they can.

There's more to explore in the story, there always is.  But this is the part that most bears repeating: death isn't the end of the story.  The disciples certainly thought so.  So did the Jewish authorities, the Roman authorities, the crowd that called for his death - everyone who thought about it at all, thought is was all over.  Jesus was dead.

But death isn't the end of the story.  The power of the resurrection story is that there was death and it wasn't the end.  That bears repeating, just as it is, because by knowing what "was" in the story, we know what "is" in our lives.

In our own lives, we experience hurt, grief and pain.  We experience the sudden shock of loss, crushing and dispiriting.  We experience moments of "crucifixion."  No matter how others might regard or value them, we know those moments for the feeling we experience.

  

But that's not the end.

Jesus says "I am the resurrection and the life" - am, not just was or will be - and offers life in, and after, each of those life challenging and life changing moments.  In our own moments of "crucifixion," we find life rising out of death.  Or loss or sorrow or grief or fear.  Jesus shows us the way to new life, not just in his death and resurrection, but in his life.  Life comes from living as Jesus taught us to live.  That bears repeating, too.