Pascha I

Easter Sunday of the Resurrection of the Lord

Acts 10:34a, 37-43; Psalm 118; 1 Corinthians 5:6b-8; Matthew 28:1-10 / John 20:1-9

The three sacred days.

On the first day everyone abandons Jesus or looks on from a distance so as not to get involved and caught up in the violence. On the second day everyone is fearfully hidden. On the third day everyone is looking for Jesus except that he is not to be found.

Why is that?

Might it be that we look for Jesus in all the wrong places. Like the women, how often do we look for Jesus among the dead?  ‘He is not among the dead’, we are told. Then where are we to go searching?

Sin is a similar experience. How often is our sinfulness looking for something good but in all the wrong places?

Consider people who are caught in the blinding light of gun idolatry? What are they really seeking? Security from their fears?

Why do people hold prejudicial views of others based on race, religion, or orientation? Are people just afraid of what is unknown?

What of individuals who find themselves wandering down the lanes of pornography? Might they be looking for an honest, committed relationship?

What of people who grasp onto power and in using it inadvertently hurt other people? Are they themselves hurting or are they afraid of being hurt?

Isn’t that why Jesus’s excuse for us from the cross is that we don’t know what we are doing?

What are you really seeking for in life?

I have had to wonder, do we expect too much from this first day of the Resurrection? Might this first day of Easter simply help us to acknowledge that we are searching, yearning for something. Maybe we are not even sure what or who we are seeking out. The angels always know we are fundamentally seeking after Jesus, the crucified but don’t know where to find him.

We will find Jesus in Galilee they tell us. But what does Galilee represent for you?

But then that begs a bigger question, is Jesus the one to be sought after or as so many of the parables tell us are we the ones being sought out? In all the resurrection stories no one ever finds Jesus. It is rather that Jesus makes himself known to those who are seeking him. “And behold, Jesus met the women on their way and greeted them…”

Where in your life is Jesus making himself known to you?