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Easter Sunday

Peter's speech is his first to a gentile audience. It is really one of those early summaries of the Christian creed. It contains seven essential ingredients:

1. God sent Jesus.
2. He did and said good things.
3. He was killed, then raised to life.
4. We and many other witnesses saw him after his resurrection.
5. He commissioned us to tell everyone about him.
6. He has fulfilled the ancient hopes of Judaism.
7. Grace, life and the forgiveness of sins are yours in him.

John is writing in A.D. 90. John's gospel represents a bringing together of two distinct traditions about the resurrection: one is that Mary Magdalene visited the grave of Jesus on Easter morning, found it empty, and reported the fact to the disciples. She, a woman, was the first witness to the resurrection. But women had no legal standing as witnesses in Judaic Law. A whole group of women, including Mary Magdalene and Johanna and Mary the mother of James and a group of women with them rushed and told the apostles 'but the words seemed to them an idle tale' and they did not believe them.

The other tradition is of Peter's visit to the grave (see Luke 24:12). Peter is the 'First Witness'. You could see the attraction of this tradition for those who argued for a Roman primacy. However, the important matter to be noted here is that John married two distinct traditions. One stressed the conviction that the disciples come to faith in the resurrection through seeing the risen Lord. (Emmaus story of Luke). This is the earlier tradition. The later tradition, represented by 'the beloved disciple', stresses that we come to faith in the resurrection through the mere sight of the empty tomb. In other words, we do not have to see the Risen Lord with our own eyes to come to faith. John is writing for a much later generation, and for us.

The details of the resurrection are irrelevant. What is important is that an event occurred that transformed those who were close to it, and those who had been close to him. (Whatever happened happened outside of history) The real miracle of Easter is the manner in which the lives of the apostles had been transformed by the resurrection of the master. They had fled from Calvary a broken and dejected group of people; their hero had died. The one on whom they had pinned their hopes for years had been executed as a criminal. They locked themselves into a room at Jerusalem, believing their own lives to be in danger. Then suddenly they are transformed. They preach boldly and fearlessly. (Remember Peter and the denial: you too are a Galilean, your accent betrays you.) This surely, rather than the moved stone or the missing body, is the ultimate proof of the resurrection. Something happened which convinced them he was still alive again. That something we call resurrection. They are literally new men. Yet, death as a cold fact, has not been abolished. But its power over them and over us has been broken. And because its power has been broken, fear has been banished from their lives.

Jesus did not of course stumble towards death accidentally. He himself had called Jerusalem 'the graveyard of the prophets'. Several times he had signalled to his close companions that he would meet a violent death, but that new life would be the end result. The symbol he used to convey this reality was Baptism. Baptism was the doorway into this new life. 'Unless you are born again of water and the Holy Spirit you shall not enter the Kingdom of Heaven', he told Nicodemus. We have all been joined to Christ in baptism. Through baptism we have become his body. We will ritually express that commitment once more today when we all renew our baptismal promises.

As Christians we believe that Easter has introduced us to the mystery of life; it has plunged us deep into that mystery. The fact of suffering and death remains. The significance of the fact has been transformed. Because of Good Friday, we can now speak of the suffering and Death of God. God is no longer an indifferent figure in the skies. He is passionately involved in the lives of his people. He is beside them, suffering in solidarity with them. God the son suffered and died; God the Father suffered the loss of his Son. But the mystery has been deepened and enriched. This is the reality we try to absorb during this Easter vigil and indeed through the entire of the Easter Season.

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