Triduum Sacrum – Pascha I

Triduum Sacrum: Pascha I

Acts 10: 34a, 37-43; Psalm 118; 1 Corinthians 5:6b-8; Luke 24:1-12

“Why do you seek the living one among the dead?” Why wouldn’t we? Not because Jesus is dead but because Jesus is always among the dead bringing us to life. What do I mean, Jesus is always among the dead?

In the Apostle’s Creed we proclaim, “I believe…Jesus Christ descended into hell…” descended into the realm of death. Is not death experienced within us in many ways?

For how many of us is our commitment to Jesus Christ listless and dying? How many of us betray Christ by our choices? How many of us are just lost and wandering aimlessly from our spiritual friendship with Jesus and the community? How many of us here are dying and overcome by our sin? Death is experienced within us in many ways.

A fourth century homily for Holy Saturday, offers a vivid telling of our belief that Jesus descended into the realm of the dead: “Jesus – God has gone to search for and bring up Adam who was condemned and is our fellow slave. Jesus goes to seek out our first parent like a lost sheep. Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, Jesus has gone to free from sorrow the captive slaves Adam and Eve”.

Do you hear the resonances, like the strings within a piano struck by the inner hammer?

Jesus – God has gone to search for us.

Recall a father running out to greet not only a wasteful son but a bitter and jealous elder son. Recall a woman anxiously scouring her home for a missing coin. Recall a shepherd feverishly storming through the high Palestinian grasses searching for a sheep that has wandered away before the wolves devour it.

These parables are not just stories. They tell us about a God, who in Jesus, goes searching for us.

Jesus – God has gone to bring up Adam who was condemned…

Recall the conversation Jesus has with a women caught in the act of adultery. “Woman, has no one condemned you?” She replied, “No one, sir.” Then Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin anymore.”

This is such a powerful encounter with a God raising us up from the depths of our sin that the early Christian communities were so scandalized by this unbelievable extravagant story of grace they weren’t even sure they wanted to keep it in the Gospels. And can we forget the words to a convicted, guilty, criminal a short time before he died: “Today you will be with me in Paradise!” Jesus seeks out people who are condemned, guilty as well as innocent.

Jesus – God greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death has gone to free from sorrow the captive slaves Adam and Eve”…has gone to free humanity from slavery.

To Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side,and do not be unbelieving, but believe.” To Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” To the women on the way to Calvary: “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep instead for yourselves and for your children”. To Martha, “Take away the stone.” And then cried out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”

In each of these episodes Jesus visits those who are bound by unbelief, the burden of betrayal, the depth of grief and helplessness and those bound by death itself to free us from our captivities and sin.

In a woodcut by German Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer, he dramatically shows Jesus – God bending down and kneeling just as he did the night of the Last Supper to wash the feet of his disciples. Jesus is reaching down to bring up…who? Cain, who murdered his brother or is it David who committed adultery? It is Amon who raped his half–sister Tamar or the thief and traitor Judas? Is it the prostitute Rahab or is it you and me being raised from our sin? For Jesus has gone to search for and bring up those who are condemned…”

The depth and hope of the resurrection is that Jesus continues to bear the marks of the Passion in his risen body forever. Jesus identifies with our sinful, broken humanity. The wounded – risen Jesus is present with the Ukrainian people in the shadows of death and is seeking out the marred Vladimir Putin. Jesus desires to be with the homeless and world’s refugees, with those on death row and imprisoned living in darkness. Jesus wants to speak a word of hope and strength to people who have been condemned by others for their views, their sexual orientation, their race, their differences, as well as to those of us who have condemned them. Jesus desires to be with those who have been wounded by sexual abuse and with his Body, the Church that inflicted those wounds.

Jesus is searching for you and me to raise us up from our complacency, our sins, and our betrayals and seeking to rescue us from our wandering. No one is excluded from the divine search. The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead means he must first descend to the depths of human sin and brokenness to be with us. For it is from within the depths of our wounds that the wounds of Jesus heal us and lift us up.

And so as Saint John Chysostomos preached, “Rejoice today, both you who have labored from the first hour or loitered until the eleventh hour; both you who are committed and you who have been heedless of the Gospel; both you who have fasted and you who have disregarded the fast. The table is full-laden; feast sumptuously. The fatted calf is slaughtered; let no one go away hungry”.