Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!
This Easter, I was struck by all the narratives in Scripture of Jesus’ post-resurrection appearances. In Matthew’s Gospel, the angels at the tomb let the disciples know that Jesus is going ahead of them to Galilee. Mark’s Gospel ends similarly, though in the longer ending Jesus appears on the road to two disciples, and at the table with others. Luke’s Gospel includes the story of two disciples walking to Emmaus and encountering Jesus along the way, only realizing that it is the Lord when he breaks bread with them at the table, and a miraculous appearance among the full retinue of his disciples.
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John’s Gospel includes some of the most dramatic and beautiful post-resurrection appearances including his appearance to Mary Magdalene at the tomb, Jesus’ interaction with a skeptical Thomas, and a beautiful story of Jesus meeting his fishermen friends on the beach with breakfast. And in the Acts of the Apostles, we hear that Jesus remained with the disciples for forty days before his ascension.
What most caught my attention is the very presence of Jesus in the communities and the places where the disciples are living, through very simple but meaningful acts like table fellowship, walking, and offering hospitality. The Risen Jesus is not some ascendant deity who no one can approach in his resurrected body, but is present in body-ness and place-ness of human life.
There is a temptation in modern Christianity to mythologize and spiritualize the resurrection narrative, to embrace the resurrection as mere metaphor or symbol for God’s promise to make all things new. But for me, the truly radical implication of the resurrection is that Jesus shows up in the very places and the very business of daily life and particular community. It is a continuation of the Incarnation and the self-emptying of God.
What does this mean for those of us proclaiming Christ’s resurrection, praising the God who conquers sin and death, and makes all things truly new? Firstly, I think it means that our first task as Christians is to give thanks to God for the bodies we live in and among, and for the unique and particular places that God has called us to live in. In Christ, God put feet on the ground in the neighborhoods and communities of 1st century Palestine, and continues to put feet on the ground in our neighborhoods. Where we live, and who we live among, have been graced and blessed with the presence of the Risen Christ! What greater honor can our communities receive?
Secondly, I think it becomes our daily practice to seek out the resurrected Lord in our neighborhoods and communities in the faces, the hands, the gifts, and the connections of our neighbors. Christ animates our neighborhoods with the Holy Spirit, and continues to show up, to truly show up in the particularity of place. Where neighbors come together to celebrate the birth of a baby, a graduation, or justice realized, there Christ is present. Where communities cry out and lament the brokenness and pain of sin and death, community violence, a loss of shelter, or the death of a loved one, there the Lord appears.
Our task is to hold on to a posture of curiosity and anticipation, knowing that Christ is here. The whispers, the rumors, and the hopes of a resurrected Jesus are gifts for our communities and for each of us.
Thirdly, I think the body-ness and place-ness of our daily lives become for us acts of praise and worship. God has sanctified the small and simple ways that people come together and live as community. Each meal, each block party, each encounter at the grocery store, becomes for us an opportunity to praise the God who set all things, all creation, free from sin and death to live fully as God’s people in the places where we live and worship. There is no spiritual and secular, there is no Sunday and the rest of the week, there is only the world and the people that God has set free. And each moment, each interaction, that draws communities together for the common good, is a litany of praise and thanksgiving.
I pray that this Easter season you will notice the ways that the Risen Lord is showing up in your community. At the end of each day, ask yourself, “Where did I see God at work?”. You may be surprised by what catches your attention. God has raised Jesus from the dead, and behold, he goes ahead of us into the towns, cities, and neighborhoods where we live. May we bump into Jesus along the way. Amen!
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