The Presence of Christ
“The earliest reference to the Resurrection is Saint Paul’s, and he makes no mention of an empty tomb at all. But the fact of the matter is that, in a way, it hardly matters how the body of Jesus came to be missing, because in the last analysis, what convinced the people that he had risen from the dead was not the absence of his corpse but his living presence. And so, it has been ever since.”—Frederick Buechner, initially published in The Faces of Jesus.
We are resurrection people. I love to sing the hymn “Christ is Alive!” All our crosses are empty. I love that our tradition makes Easter not one day, but a season of 50 days. Of course, we need more than fifty days to keep the resurrection in our hearts and minds, but it’s a start.
I love the Alleluias. I need all this to store up for the dark times, to remember the story, and never forget it.
Buechner describes Easter as an event where the loving presence of Christ seems to explode all over the earth. Christ and his love are no longer present in one person. After the resurrection, his love and presence are now all over the world in all of us. We have become his body. Christ and his loving presence are with all of us always. Never, ever forget this. He is with us now in the present time, the past and future, and throughout all eternity.
Josh Scott, in The Christian Century, April 7th, 2024, writes “that the book of Acts paints a drastically different picture of the early community of Jesus followers. The resurrection of Jesus had such a dramatic and profound impact on them that they began to think differently about everything—even their possessions. Their newfound faith in the risen Jesus cultivated a spirit of generosity and compassion so incredible that it became unacceptable for anyone in the community to be in need.
Luke doesn’t describe the community of the earliest followers of Jesus, listing doctrinal positions they agree on. He doesn’t describe them gathering in a room to argue the finer points of theology, so they could agree and belong together. Instead, Acts says the apostles’ testimony to Jesus’ resurrection led to real, practical, life-changing action in the world so that ‘there was not a needy person among them.’
Perhaps this is what Easter is all about, not theory but practice. It’s the bursting into this world of a new creation that plays by different rules, where love calls us to work for the blossoming of every single person and of the whole creation.”
If you have difficulty comprehending all this, you are in good company. I don’t think anyone understands it, but we can see and believe the change in lives. So, if you have difficulty believing this, let others believe it for you. We are not called to understand, but to live it, just as Christ did.
