Easter Means New Life

At our March youth event we talked about symbols of the Lent and Easter seasons. The Easter Egg is the sealed tomb from which new life emerges, and the baby chick is like Jesus. We talked about butterflies emerging from their chrysalis. We talked a little bit about families of bunnies bursting into bunches of babies and emerging from their warren. It is true that the resurrection is life emerging from death, and this is what we celebrate on Easter Sunday morning. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Death has been swallowed up in Victory! Alleluia!

My thought, though, is that this resurrection image is about life restored. Surely the disciples saw it this way. They walked the earth with their Lord and teacher and friend, but that story had a tragic ending on Good Friday. The good news to these disciples was that their Jesus was restored to them. I've been reading some scripture in the daily lectionary, and Jeremiah 31 shows the joy of the returned exiles. God will be their God and they will be God's people. They will be rebuilt and built up. They will dance with tambourines. They will be vine dressers and enjoy the fruit of the vine. They will encourage each other and all will worship together on Mt. Zion. Their life in Israel will be restored.

Is that what Easter is about? Restored life? The Easter morning disciples are amazed and relieved, but they're still missing something, aren't they? Of all our Easter symbol lessons, the butterfly catches it best. The caterpillar goes into the chrysalis and a butterfly comes out. This is not life restored, but life transformed. When I imagine the description of the exiles returning, I imagine "the good life" as depicted by American marketing companies: relaxing and enjoying a glass of estate wine under a vine arbor on some California vineyard on a cool spring day with a small fire going and friends making music together. Is it this kind of life that the exiles are returning to? Was it ever this good BEFORE the exile? It sounds somehow BETTER to me. This is life transformed.

A big part of the season of Easter--the main part, even--is the celebration of Christ's victory over sin and death, but with that victory comes transformation. Big changes will come later in the season of Easter. Ascension happens on a Thursday near the Seventh Sunday after Easter. On Ascension Sunday, we will remember that after the resurrection, Christ left the disciples. Somehow, this is easier, emotionally. Jesus being lifted up and taken away in a cloud is less traumatic than what happened on Good Friday. Still, just as the disciples are celebrating the presence of Jesus, he leaves again. Isn't that just another cause for grief?

At the end of the Easter season is Pentecost Sunday--the giving of the promised Holy Spirit. From then on, the disciples experience the presence of God not through the body of their friend walking with them, but through God's own Spirit within and among them. Not only is God's presence transformed from being a human body to being the Holy Spirit, but THEY are also transformed. They beCOME the body of Christ in the world. This is not just life, this is fresh, just-born new life and a new, different kind of life.

Is this the good life? The disciples are about to do some hard work. They are about to face persecutions. They are about to struggle with schisms. They are about to be martyred. I'm getting ahead of myself a little bit. During Easter it is RIGHT to celebrate, but here's the thing. They are becoming the body of Christ, and Christ's OWN body did hard work and suffered betrayal and was martyred. In this way, the new community itself is like Jesus' life restored, not transformed.

All these things are entangled together. Jesus' death and resurrection accomplishes victory over sin and death. Jesus' resurrection accomplishes life restored and the end of grief. Jesus' resurrection also accomplishes life transformed; Jesus is the same, but also different, passing though locked doors and eventually floating off to heaven in a bodily way. Jesus' presence to us is transformed from a body to the Holy Spirit. Jesus' resurrection and transformation also transforms the disciples; they are transformed from followers of Christ to the body of Christ.

What IS the good news of all this? This is the good news: Easter is new life. We, as the new community are the ones who live that new life. This is not life restored; this life is better. This is not the wine-estate good life, but it is better life in other ways, new ways. With the victory over sin and death, we can find ways in our community to forgive one another and love one another and enjoy one another. The relationships themselves are better than estate wine. The love of the Holy Spirit is more warm and comforting than the wood fire. There is still work to do, but it is the work of dressing the vines of the relationships of our community and accomplishing and preserving the reconciliation we achieve in that work. We enjoy the blessings of the fruit of this new life--the music of worship and God's praise that we make together as friends delights us. THIS is the truly good life that God intends for us. THIS is the Easter new life of the beloved community. THIS is Christ resurrected and transformed. This Easter life is US transformed.

Happy Easter! Enjoy this good, new life. He is risen indeed!

--Chas