It’s tempting, sharing the story once more of the morning of Jesus’ resurrection, to think about the mechanics of all the things that took place on that Sunday morning two thousand years ago. From the movement of the stone to the return of life and breath to Jesus’ broken body, sometimes we meet the unfathomable and the miraculous with questions that would put the resurrection back on familiar ground, in terms we might better understand.
Yet there is nothing about the resurrection that fits with the world as we know it, and that is very much the point.
But still, we want to make sense of it. We might start with “a clarifying question” to help us understand how the stone itself was moved. How can something so heavy and immovable be cast aside so easily? Were there helpers in the wings, faithful disciples ready to assist with the great revelation? Or perhaps we might look to the angels…did a few of God’s messengers take turns moving the stone out of the way?
The engineers among us might respond practically: “Well, how was the stone put there in the first place, when Jesus’ friends were laying him to rest? They probably used simple machines—levers, or perhaps a ramp or a wheel—to get the job done.”
Which is to say, they used strength and ingenuity to create power: the power to move the immovable.
Power is what allows us to change the world. Yet far too often, we instead feel the heavy powerlessness of the stones themselves.
As wars in Iran and Ukraine rage on, as our communities carry the heavy weight of division, as our lives feel uncertain and unmoored, our feelings of powerlessness can be palpable. In our personal lives, when we carry the weight of heartbreak or separation, or feel the ache of anxiety or fear, it can feel like the stone has closed us in and there is nothing we can do about it. It can feel like we have no levers or pulleys or pushcarts with which to move the things that keep us stuck.
To God, though, power means something different. We realize that the moment we see the empty tomb, and notice the stone that has been effortlessly cast aside.
On Easter Sunday, we celebrate the resurrection of our friend and our Lord…but we also come to learn something new about what power means to God. Until now, we have been limited in our human understanding of it: levers help us move rocks, and power helps us get what we need. But in God’s imagination, power is not a lever or a pulley, but the very manifestation of love itself. Through power—the power of love—the hatred and violence of this world is called out and cast away. Through the power of love, death itself is conquered. Through the power of love, our hearts are raised to new life. We are raised to new life.
In the coming days, we will walk together through the difficult days of Jesus’ death and resurrection, and we will see the power of this world laid bare.
But on Sunday, Easter Day, we will see with new clarity how love can move the world, and what true power is. This is the love that casts out fear, the love that conquers death, the love that makes all things new.
Blessings to you in this season of holiness and new life!
Faithfully,
