Fear and Great Joy! (Reflections on Easter 2023)

 

"Three Marys at Christ's Tomb" 15th Cent.

So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. (Matthew 28:8) 

I love Easter. Of course, given the life I live, that’s a good thing. But you don’t even have to be a Christian these days to enjoy the fact that here in the Northern Hemisphere it’s now spring, and, at least for those of us here in Philadelphia, the odds are good we can put the snow shovels away for another year. 

This is a season of joy as we watch the trees start to bud, the flowers sneak out, and the days getting warmer and longer. Fun fact: According to the Venerable Bede, a 7^th Century Monk who was into this kind of thing, the name “Easter” might actually come from a pagan goddess of springtime and fertility named Eostre. Ancient Britains celebrated this gal in a month they called Eostrumonath, which corresponds to our April. Christians, of course, always celebrated the resurrection of Jesus in the spring to correspond with the Jewish Passover as the Gospels tell us[i]. So, when Christianity came to Britain, the old pagan festival name was appropriated for the new celebration. I guess human beings just don’t like change[ii]. 

But it’s not just the name that’s been appropriated. We still use a lot of fertility symbols to celebrate this day. Eggs are symbols of fertility and new life, as are flowers and bunnies. One of my favorite Easter symbols has always been the butterfly. Christians use this symbol, I guess, because the caterpillar in the cocoon looks pretty much like a dead thing, or at least like a pebble or something that couldn’t possibly be alive. It’s meant to remind us of Jesus in the tomb. Then, out of this rock, comes something beautiful and totally unexpected—something vastly different from what went inside. I think it’s a pretty cool metaphor for Jesus himself and the whole gospel story. We had Jesus who was baptized by John, who taught and loved and forgave enemies and fed people and healed the sick. Then he was killed and buried in a cave with big rock sealing the entrance. What emerged on Easter is the Christ of faith who lives inside us and reminds us that death isn’t the end, and all the things he has done we are called to do also. 

What always fascinated me about butterflies is what really goes on inside that cocoon. If you ever cut one open—which I don’t recommend. It’s not nice to the insect—you’ll discover something unlike any kind of growth transformation you’ve ever seen. The whole worm just dissolves into a kind of goo which bears no resemblance to anything that could be alive—animal, insect, or plant. It’s just goo. Then it morphs into a beautiful flying insect. 

For all of Jesus’ friends and loved ones, that time between Good Friday and Easter morning must’ve been gooey time. It wasn’t what it had been, and it didn’t show any signs of turning into anything. Matthew says there was an earthquake[iii], that the whole ground had shifted under their feet.

 Then comes that morning at the tomb when the earth shakes again. It’s another aftershock. More confusion, more uncertainty. The women are told Jesus has been raised—they even meet Jesus! But what does any of this mean? When they tell the disciples Jesus is raised, the question is, “What do we do now?” Things certainly wouldn’t be the same, but what would they become? 

I think we live a good portion of our lives in the indeterminate, gooey stage. It’s not just COVID or the climate change or politics or gas prices that have us feeling the world has changed and we don’t know what it’s changing into. We enter into “gooey time” all our lives. We get married, we choose careers, we change jobs, we have kids, we get divorced, we get sick, we retire—the list of little earthquakes goes on and on. 

The women at the tomb must’ve been overjoyed to see Jesus, but they were afraid, too. Every change is frightening. The message of Easter is that the changes can also be moments of joy. They can be moments of excitement and hope. We are called to believe that life can come out of death, that loss can lead us to growth, and that uncertainty does not spell doom. 

Fear and great joy can go skipping down the road together, because joy—real joy—doesn’t depend on circumstances. Real joy comes from the knowledge that we dwell constantly in the love of God. 

We in the American Church are in a gooey period. Three out of ten US adults are religiously unaffiliated. The percentage of self-identified Christians has dropped in the last ten years from 75% to 63%[iv]. The churches of my parents’ generation—with their enormous worship spaces, giant pipe organs, and robed choirs—may soon be a thing of the past. For some of us, that might be frightening. 

But I see a new Christianity emerging, resurrected from the tomb of our ancestors’ faith. It will be smaller but grittier. More honest, less judgmental. Open to all kinds of people, and concerned more with healing society than with doctrinal purity. People won’t worship there because it’s “the right thing to do.” They will come because the words and the sacrificial love of Jesus will move their hearts and fill them with joy. When this church emerges it might not look much like what came before it, but, like the butterfly, it will be astounding. 

Easter is our holiest day because it reminds us that God’s still in control. God’s will for us is life and joy. Everything may change, but it will be all right in the end. And if it’s not all right, it’s because this is not the end. 

Alleluia! Christ is risen!

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[i] Just in case you ever wondered, the Passover takes place, according to Scripture, at the first full moon following the Spring Equinox. Easter is always observed on the first Sunday that follows. That’s why it comes at different times each year. It depends on the phase of the moon.

[ii] Folks around the neighborhood of Faith Lutheran of Philadelphia still refer to the shopping mall across the street as “Franklin Mills,” even though the name was changed to Philadelphia Mills years ago. And does any New Yorker ever call 6^th Avenue “The Avenue of the Americas?”

[iii] See Matt. 27:51

[iv] This is according to the Pew Research Center report of December, 2021.