Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Easter Sunday 2010, Essence of Life

Easter Sunday
Mark 16: 1-18

And when the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint Him. And very early on the first day of the week, they went to the tomb just as the sun was rising. And they said to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the door of the tomb?”
Benjamin Gerritz
And looking up, they saw that the stone was rolled back—and it was very large. And they went into the tomb. There they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clad in a white robe; and they were beside themselves with amazement. And he said to them, “Do not be startled; you seek Jesus of Nazareth the Crucified One. He is risen; He is not here; see, there is the place where they laid Him [his body]. But go, and say to his disciples and Peter “He will lead you to Galilee. There you will see Him as He promised you.”
            And they went out and fled from the tomb in great haste, for trembling and astonishment had come upon them; and being awestruck, they were unable to say anything to anyone about what they had experienced.
When He had risen early on the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene from whom He had driven out seven demons. And she went and told those who had walked with Him, as they mourned and wept. But when they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, their hearts could not grasp it.
After this He appeared in another form to two of them on the way as they were walking over the fields. And they went back and told the rest, but they could not open their hearts to their words either.
Afterwards He appeared to the eleven themselves as they were celebrating the meal. He reproached them for their lack of openness and for their hardness of heart, because they had not wanted to believe those who had seen Him, the Risen One.

And He said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the new message from the realm of the angels to the whole of creation. Whoever unites his heart with it  [believes] and is immersed in me [baptized] will attain the salvation. But whoever closes himself against it does not let the power of selflessness into his heart [does not let the power of My Self into his heart] will meet his downfall. And spiritual powers [these signs] will stand by those who unite themselves with it and will attend their path [believe]: Through the power of my being [in my name] they will drive out demons; they will speak a new language; serpents they will make upright, and poisons they are given to drink will not harm them. They will lay their hands on the sick, and give healing forces to them.


Easter Sunday
Dore
April 4, 2010
Mark 16:1 – 18


Human perception is a complicated thing. Sometimes we can see a thing and not recognize it at all. Sometimes our expectations prevent us from taking in what is actually there. And sometimes we see things that seem to make no sense at all.

The women go sadly to the tomb, expecting to meet with the usual results of death. Instead they are startled to meet a very much alive young man in white. He speaks calming words to them. He knows that they have come to anoint the corpse of Jesus, who had undergone torture and execution. Contrary to their expectation, the young man assures them that the bodily Jesus they are expecting to find is not there—they can see for themselves that the grave is empty. He says that Jesus is risen. Empty grave. Risen? What could that possibly mean? They are astonished, confused and speechless.

And so are the other disciples when they hear the story, despite multiple reports. It is an event so radically new in human history that it was at first imperceptible, ungraspable, unbelievable, as it continues to be today. Perhaps there are other ways of perceiving truth, besides sensory perception and thought. Perhaps an open heart is a better organ for perceiving some things than the mind is.

At the first Easter, the living essence of Life itself entered the realm of death, and remained there, itself alive. Since that time, Death the Spectre holds in its arms a secret. In the bosom of death there shines the young man in white, radiantly joyful. The young man now occupies the once empty void at the center of death. The young man is the picture of death’s now living heart.  Death is no longer a stopping place, a dead end. The young man in death’s heart points out the way further.

Go, he says, walk toward the sun-drenched regions of living light. There you will see Him who wrestled with death and filled it with Life. There you will behold Him, the powerful healer and giver of grace. You will find Him at the heart’s altar. There you will behold the One who is the meaning of the earth.

www.thechristiancommunity.org 


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