What is the most important truth of Easter?

The eighth grade led the Stations of the Cross ‘tableau style’ the Friday before Good Friday.  At the thirteenth station, Mrs. Kenny, the first grade teacher, was touched by the tenderness of the Pieta scene – where Mary holds the dead body of her son – and some tears began to flow.  The student right next to her noticed, wrapped her hands around her arm and just rested her head on her arm.  After a bit, she looked up and said: “Mrs. Kenny, can I say something that might help?”  “Of course.”  “He didn’t stay dead.”

Out of the mouths of babes, there is the deepest truth about Easter.  He didn’t stay dead.  [Or if you want to be more theologically correct – the Father did not let him stay dead.  Rather, Jesus WAS RAISED by the Father into fullness of life.  But my first grader said it simplest and best…]  And if there is anything that anyone can say that might help this broken world of ours, isn’t it precisely that stunning little bit of news.  He didn’t stay dead.  Because of that one, tiny, little, important detail – everything has changed, hasn’t it?

You see, if Jesus did not remain in the grips of death, if the tomb could not and would not hold the risen one, then it will not hold us either.  And though we tend to think of that, usually in an ‘end of my life/days’ type of scenario –‘not staying dead’ is so much bigger than that.  So much more immediate!
 
You see, ‘not staying dead’ means that there is a power within us that we can draw upon in any situation.  And that power is full of LIFE.  Of Growth.  Of Change.  We’re not stuck in our past mistakes or failures.  And, we have an ability to walk into the places of death and bring life, bring change, bring growth.  It is what that shopkeeper in Bethlehem does as he keeps hiring people to work his store – he brings life to an economy shattered by oppression even though it cuts into his profit margins.  It is what our Newman Center students have done each service trip they’ve been a part of – bring life to places where there is poverty and despair.

‘Not staying dead’ means that there is an URGENCY to our life – a preciousness to each moment, each opportunity to proclaim good news.  That is what we hear in Matthew’s account – a kind of breathless excitement.  “Go quickly and tell the disciples”, the angel says.  It records that the women “went away quickly from the tomb, fearful, yet overjoyed” and that they “ran to announce” this good news.  Not staying dead means that we run to all the places of the world that need good news spread to them.  (and we don’t have to look far to find those places, do we – just flip open the papers…) 

‘Not staying dead’ – means that forgiveness is our first, middle and last name.  It means we can’t waste another minute of our life or someone else’s holding them in the prison of a grudge we won’t let go of, or of worrying about whether they’ll forgive us.  Sin, mistakes, wounds that we’ve received or given – they can hold no power for those who will not stay in their power.  And there’s such a resurrection freedom in that, isn’t there?  Such a JOY in that.

But you know, we’re pretty used to being partly dead or mostly dead.  If we are honest, there is a fair amount of ‘tombness’ to most of us.  Even the women took a moment or two for the power of the resurrection to touch them.  Like the guards, they were afraid at first.  (who wouldn’t – experiencing an earthquake and seeing an angel in a graveyard.)   It took the angel’s message to begin the process.  Joy finally crept in with the appearance of Jesus himself to them.  And you can bet that by the time they got to the disciples with the news, they weren’t whispering it!  Now that joy had replaced fear, everything is different.  Now that death has replaced life, EVERYTHING is different.
 
In a few moments, we’ll have the choice to make that journey – that choice ‘not to stay dead’ in our sins and our lives – by the renewal of our Baptismal promises.  As you make those ancient promises again, let the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead be breathed into your own life.  As you experience the water splashing over you – let it be the cleansing of all that is death from your heart and life and hope.

What is the most important truth of Easter?  Jesus didn't stay dead.  Neither should we...