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?”
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.
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| Rembrandt |
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
Mark 16: 1 – 18
Many ancient mythologies tell of a bird of great beauty,
with colored plumage
This bird has a very long lifespan, some say 500, some say
1,000 years. As the end of its life approaches, the bird builds a pyre nest of
the branches of aromatic trees, like the healing myrrh. It sets it afire and is
consumed. After three days there arises a young bird, who gathers the ashes of
the nest, which was both sepulcher and cradle, and forms them into an egg of
myrrh. It takes this egg to the city of the sun and deposits it on the altar of
the Sun God, thus ushering in a new phase out of its own life.
The Sun Bird is the image for Christ, the Sun Spirit and the
creator of time. He lives on the dew of His Father’s will. He rises anew after
His life is consumed with love for humanity. In the grave, like the Sun Bird, He
creates a new form out of the ashes of the old. As the young man at the tomb
told the women: He is risen; His body is not here—see the place where they laid
Him.’ (Mark 16:6) When two of his
disciples are walking across the field, they are overtaken by Him,
unrecognized. The three of them discuss what had just taken place, and how this
all fitted in with the scriptural prophecies. Afterward, they finally realized
with Whom they had been, and they say, ‘Did our hearts not already burn within
us as He spoke to us on the way?” (Luke 24:13,
ff.)
Because Christ is also eternal, from beyond time, everything
He did in His human life and death is still ongoing. His descent into the
depths of earthly existence, in life and in death, means that these are the
very places we can always find Him. He walks with us through all our greater
and lesser deaths.
He is also always here in the very depths of our own being,
in the deepest core of our heart, with His power to renew. He lives in us as
the firebird, the force that consumes and un-forms the old when its time is past.
And He is the phoenix force that helps us re-form ourselves anew out of the
ashes.
The grave is empty; the heart is full. For Christ has
entered the very pulse of our life. The earth is living in the sun’s
spirit-radiant power. For it, along with us, has been placed on the altar of
the Sun-God.
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