In reality, do shouts of Alleluia! make the darkness disappear? Do our worries, stresses, and hardships dissipate with the rising of the Easter sun / son? Is this what the Resurrection is all about?
To say the message of Easter is to not worry, that everything will be OK in the end and that our darkness turns to light when the Great Fire is lit would be to disrespect you as passive onlookers and to simplify the most profound and mysterious occurrence in our world’s history.
The Resurrection is not a pacifier or a formula for comfort. Life is still not easy when we wake up Easter morning. On the contrary. As theologian Karl Barth says,
…life becomes deadly earnest and difficult wherever this word ‘resurrection’ resounds. Resurrection proclaims true freedom to us and lets us discover our prison chains. It tells us that the one and only refuge is God. But it tells us that only because it shows us that all our positions on life’s battlefield are lost and that we must vacate them. Against this fact we try to defend ourselves. We do not tolerate this pronouncement upon our lives, inherent in the resurrection proclamation. For that reason we deny the resurrection, or we at least minimize it. We alter it into something human.
(Threatened by Resurrection, Bread and Wine, pp. 300-301)
Discovering our prison chains may be a harsh way to put it, yet we all have them. We all have chains that keep us in fear, even in the light of the Gospel’s command “Do not be afraid.” We face situations that keep us stuck in a place that looks dark and foreboding. We find that our dependence on things blocks us from finding refuge in God. When these battlefields are bereft of Spirit, then as Barth says, we must vacate them in order to experience the true Resurrection of new life.
The Easter message is that Christ is Risen – not for the history books but for us so that we may participate in the renewal of our own lives. Christ is Risen so that we may see the Divine and know that the Divine walks with us in our surrender of our own darkness and imprisonment. The message may not bring us to happiness, but it will bring us to joy. It will bring us to deep living and authentic experience. It will bring us Life.
May you experience this year’s Resurrection as personal. May you sing with joy at its coming, may you walk with courage in its Truth.
Blessed Easter.
Lori
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