The Third Sunday of Easter

Luke 24:35-48

Dear Jesus,

I’m struggling. I want to be a believer. That has been my goal from the time I first met you so long ago. All these many years later have I made any progress? We are celebrating Easter, this fifty-day feast of your triumph over sin, suffering and death. For fifty days the proclamation persists over sung alleluias that you are alive. Why did you keep the wounds?

Isn’t woundedness part of the human condition on the way? In glory won’t all of our wounds be done away with? Or, did you keep the wounds to encourage us, to convince us that nothing, not even the worst that others can unleash upon us can ultimately defeat us. For those who follow you, walking in your footsteps, living in your resurrection, there are no tragedies. There may be terrible events that break our hearts as we experience evil’s cunning ways expressed in inhumane actions. Towers may collapse and kill the inhabitants. Suicide bombs may explode and kill a wedding party celebrating nuptials. A dispirited reveler envious of others’ joy may shoot randomly and kill an innocent one. And we would be tempted to speak in terms of tragedy. But you say from the midst of the misery, “Peace be with you.”

You are not trivializing pain or the injustice of the killings. But you show us the wounds, the evidence of what the powerful can do to the vulnerable, and the wounds proclaim what your accepting even death on the cross means for us. God did not abandon you in your extreme moment. When you say, “peace be with you,” aren’t you saying that nothing will separate us from God’s love for us? Aren’t you saying there can be no more ultimate defeat of the hero – the essence of tragedy – as long as the hero walks with you living your life?

Easter is baptism time. Adults and infants alike are plunged into the waters that are tomb and womb. Having died in the waters, the baptized rise to live your life. The earth shakes. The heavens part and God exults in beloved ones with whom God is delighted. The baptized live in the community of love that is God forever. And they are set on the path to the Table where they will renew your dying and rising even as you dare them to be what they do. Those two disciples who walked with you on the road that first Easter day said they recognized you when you broke bread for them. Did they understand that in that recognition it would be their responsibility to be bread broken and cup poured out until all, especially the poor, the weak, the disenfranchised, the excluded ones find their place at your table?

I think I see why you kept the wounds in resurrection. They give us hope and invite us to be supported through the dark nights by the love of God that you bring. Help me to remember and not fear the cost. Would you please help me not to focus on my weaknesses or my sins? Will you help me to rejoice in the community called church whose constant proclamation is forgiveness? And will you help me to forgive others even as I have been forgiven?

As difficult as it is to live the Gospel, I am afraid if I give into my weakness and focus on my sins, if my community that is church does not give strong evidence of the desire to celebrate God’s forgiveness that has come through the blood of your cross, then we are still on the other side. We haven’t died. Much less have we begun to live in resurrection.

I’ll have to think about all of this some more. The implications are heavy. I know with your help I’ll be able to take the first steps by rejoicing in the forgiveness that is mine. And then maybe others will rejoice in their own.

Let me get back to you about this.

Sincerely,

Didymus