Over the last few months on this blog, I have explored a variety of spiritual practices: listening, silence, wonder, being present, reverence, to name a few. It is easy to form a picture in your mind of doing these practices in a variety of ways. So how do you practice resurrection? How do you do resurrection?
The images don’t come as easy as the other practices, and yet, we don’t want to reduce resurrection to an historical moment in the life of Jesus that we turn to for inspiration.
In my last blog post, I invited us to consider how we can use this season of Easter to do more than celebrate Easter. Instead, how can we be Easter people? One way to do that is to see ways to practice resurrection.
We get some clues to how we can practice resurrection by looking at the stories of resurrection in the Gospels. Have you ever considered how wonderfully strange these stories are?
Resurrection is the climactic event of God’s work in the world, but these stories are so simple and ordinary. There is no description of what happened at the tomb. The risen Jesus shows up to his followers who are hiding in fear and reassures them. He talks with two people walking along a road. He gathers his followers and teaches them from the scripture. He cooks dinner for his disciples on the shore while they are fishing.
Spiritual director Henri Nouwen talks about resurrection as a “hidden event. Jesus didn’t rise from the grave to baffle his opponents, to make a victory statement, or to prove to those who crucified him that he was right after all. Jesus rose as a sign to those who had loved him and followed him that God’s divine love is stronger than death…The world didn’t take notice. Only those who called him by name, with whom he broke bread, and to whom he spoke words of peace were aware of what happened. “
If it had been me, my first act of resurrection would have been to show up on Pilate’s doorstep and say, “There!! I win, and you lose.” There would have been some glorious declaration in the heavens for all the world to know what happened.
Could it be that resurrection is not a truth we declare boldly? Could it be that before resurrection is something we practice, it is something that comes to us and is revealed to us quietly? Right here and right now, with everything else that is happening in the world, there is a power at work that can bring about change and transformation.
Just like the appearances in the gospels—in simple and ordinary moments that make up life—a transforming presence can make itself known. A gathering of friends behind closed doors talking about the meaning of their lives. A woman in grief walking in the garden. Colleagues working together, plying their trade. Two people in meaningful conversation.
This is the surprising and expected nature of resurrection. In these appearance stories, it seems that the disciples have no expectation of resurrection.
They are gathered behind locked doors in fear for their lives, not waiting for Jesus to show up. When the women tell them they have seen the living Jesus, their words are dismissed as an idle tale. Even as the men on the road to Emmaus discuss all that has happened the past three days, their expectations are so limited that they don’t even recognize Jesus when he joins them. Some of them have actually left Jerusalem; they have gone back home to Galilee and taken up their old lives of being fisherman.
In fact, the presence of resurrection is so unexpected that most of them respond with fear. The first thing Jesus often says to them is: Do not be afraid. Perhaps there are two fears associated with Easter. One is the fear that the resurrection is not true. After all, as Paul says, if the resurrection did not happen, then our faith is in vain. But could it be that the second fear of Easter is that it IS true. If there is power at work in the world that is greater than death, there is no telling where or how it will show up. Any situation or person that the world has labeled as beyond hope…surprise, the power of resurrection shows up and transformation happens.
While resurrection is not proof to the world that Jesus was right, this hidden resurrection is validation of Jesus’ ministry and his place in the world for all who follow him.
Jesus is more than simply a model for living. Instead, the “resurrection validates the earthly ministry of Jesus as the way of God, and far from condescending to attempts by Christian people to live like Jesus lived, the resurrection lifts such energies to the highest power” (Thomas Long).
All those words about turning the other cheek and loving your enemies? Not just ideas for us to ponder, but invitations to live a life that makes a difference. All those acts of caring and compassion to even the least of these? Not just nice gestures, but actions that can bring about the reality of God’s reign on earth. The sacrificial love displayed in the crucifixion? Not just something that Jesus does for us; it is a power that is let loose in the world.
He is risen. It is not a message that is shouted from the rooftops for all to hear. The resurrected Jesus is not walking around for everyone to see. The words are whispered quietly among those who hear Jesus’ words and believe that they can change the world. The presence of the resurrected Jesus shows up in our minds and hearts. That presence empowers us to move into the world and live as he lived. It empowers us to practice resurrection.