We have traveled through the up and downs of Holy Week, through 40 days of Lent, and if not 40 years in the desert, then some years in a world that may seem strange and alien and disconnected from our inner self. We have traveled to arrive again at the celebration of Easter, of the recognition that in the death of Jesus the world changed.
But how did it change? It would appear that nothing much changed – the Romans went on ruling, with increasing brutality, in Judea and throughout their huge empire. Most people were completely unaware that anything had happened. Even the disciples didn’t understand what had changed.
This change wasn’t like an earthquake or a flood, or when a new government takes control. It was more like a seed starting to grow. Life came out of that tomb. No-one saw it at first. Then Mary Magdalene did, and John, and Peter, and the other Apostles, lastly Thomas, and finally Paul. And the life they saw, the new life they experienced, only gradually fell into place for them. It wasn’t a bouquet of flowers placed on the table, it was a little plant just appearing above the soil.
The plant grew, the life became more visible, eventually it spread everywhere. We are leaves of that plant, we are part of that life that has been growing for 2000 years.
Easter is not a story about someone coming back to life, it is a story about a new life, a changed life, a life that we all share, a life that is connected to God the Father through His Son and the Spirit. Whether we use the metaphor of a plant, as Jesus did when talking of a vine and its branches, or a body with its many parts as Paul did, this life is about connections – we are connected with God, with Jesus, with all the saints, with each other, with our parents and all those who came before, and with all those who will come after us. Those connections cannot be broken, they are stronger than death.
At Easter we remind ourselves again of this fact, we acknowledge our new life, born out of that dead body, which links us indissolubly to our God. As Paul tells the new Christians in Rome: We were buried with him through baptism into death, … so that we too might live in newness of life. (Rom 6:3-11)