2 April 2024 John 20:11-18
It is tempting to think that after the Resurrection all the defects in the disciples’ character were wiped away, the gaps in their understanding were filled, and all was well thereafter.
That’s the Disney version. Cue the choir, roll credits.
The reality was much different, and much more recognizable by people like us.
Mary Magdalene – most loyal, best friend – didn’t even recognize Him, not even after he spoke to her and asked her two questions: “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom do you seek?” Mary mistook him for a groundskeeper (John 20:15). It was the same thing with two other disciples later the same day (cf. Luke 24:13-32). It is tempting to think there was something different about Jesus’ resurrected body that kept them from seeing Him, but the text is silent about that, and reading that into the text seems a way of avoiding the more obvious conclusion that the disciples of Jesus were the same guys after Easter as before. The reality and power of Easter was going to take some time to sink in. Even after seven weeks with the Risen Christ, and Jesus was about to depart for heaven, some of them could still ask, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6). They were still thinking about high positions and corner offices.
The ensuing years were a mixed bag. There was Pentecost, and a rush of new believers (Acts 2:14-47), but there was also Simon Magus (8:9-24), Ananias and Sapphira (5:1-11), and an ugly little dispute between Greek-speaking and Aramaic-speaking believers over food, resulting in the appointment of seven deacons (6:1-6). Then there was the stoning of Stephen, persecution, and Saul of Tarsus (7:1-8:1). And then there was the completely unexpected transformation of Saul of Tarsus into Paul the Apostle, which nobody liked – in Damascus and Jerusalem both, people wanted him dead. He was basically banished to Tarsus, and spent almost a decade on his own before he was brought back in – welcomed would be too strong a word (cf. 9:1-31). Then he started preaching to Gentiles and turned everyone’s world upside down (13:1-52). Some of the folks in the Jerusalem Church never got their hearts and minds around that (cf. 15:1-41).
The reality and power of Easter was taking even more time to sink in. At least all the way in.
In fact, the reality of Easter has come and gone, and come again and gone again, for the whole history of the Church. The Church’s history has been one of undulation, repeatedly reaching peaks from which it repeatedly falls back. The Jewish Christianity first envisioned by the apostles was gone within 50 years. Before the end of the first Christian century Gentile Christianity was Christianity. The end of persecution in the 4th century was a high point, but it was followed almost immediately by the cruel heresy of Arianism which claimed Jesus was not entirely divine, and would have denied all people access to God. St. Athanasius, the champion of true Christian doctrine and worship, was banished five times for his faithfulness by Constantine and bishops of the Church. A generation later St. John Chrysostom, bishop of Constantinople, was banished by the emperor Theodosius and bishops of the Church for his opposition to lavish, semi-pagan lifestyles among the wealthy and powerful.
The reality and power of Easter comes and goes, even in the Church. The good news of our time is that the reality of Easter seems to be surging again. People are beginning to become alarmed at the many departures from reason and embraces of destruction that have typified recent years, and unexpected persons have risen up to suggest that Jesus is the answer – Jordan Peterson, Jonathan Haidt, even Joe Rogan. There is the obstacle of inertia in parishes, and among youth who are still in thrall to the excesses of social media, and we still don’t see Jesus as clearly as we should, but there is reason enough to say now with more hope –
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
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