Easter Vigil

Apr 8

“He is Risen as He said.”

And where did people experience the Risen Jesus? It started by discovering where Jesus wasn’t. He wasn’t among the dead. He wasn’t in the empty tomb. From this starting point, Jesus’ actual appearances were as varied as they were unpredictable.

Mary Magdalene asks a gardener about the location of Jesus’ body, initially failing to recognize that the person with whom she is speaking IS Jesus: until he calls her by name. In another version, Jesus appears to Mary Magdalene (and the other Mary) while on their way back to convey to the disciples the message from an angel; they recognize Jesus immediately and pay homage to Him. Jesus spends most of a day walking with two disheartened disciples on the road to Emmaus who fail to recognize him until he breaks bread with them at table: and then vanishes from their sight. It takes two visits to the upper room to convince Thomas that Jesus is risen, but even at that only after Jesus drew explicit attention to the wounds of his crucifixion and death and begged Thomas to touch them! We find seven of the disciples fishing overnight with nothing to show for it until Jesus (as yet unrecognized) suggested the next morning that they try just one more time in a new spot: their eyes are opened when they make a huge catch, and as if that weren’t enough, Jesus provides breakfast for them. Jesus walked along with the disciples one last time before commissioning them to continue His work and ascended at Bethany. Saul (subsequently known as Paul) experienced the Risen Jesus as a voice on the road to Damascus that changed the trajectory of his life forever.

So, where do we look for – where might we find – the Risen Jesus in our own day? I suppose that depends on who, how, when, and where we ask. But there is one place for sure in which we can always experience something of the Risen Jesus in our own lives and in the lives of one another.

Every time we have the courage to love.