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Pastor’s column: Easter: The lens through which we should see life


Easter Sunday was just two weeks ago. But Easter is more than a day in our life, it is to be the way of our life. So what might that mean for us today?

Over the last several years my thinking concerning Easter has become more and more simplified. I don’t spend nearly as much time trying to understand, explain, or make sense of what happened. I am more comfortable with accepting the story at face value.

You know the story as well as I do. Jesus died on a cross. He was buried. The tomb was sealed. On the third day the “very large stone” over the entrance was rolled back. Women go looking for the body. A messenger says, “He has been raised; he is not here.” The tomb is empty and Christ is risen.

I have no explanations for any of that. But I have experiences of that. I’ve seen it happen in my life and in the lives of others. I read it everywhere in the scriptures. Easter resurrection isn’t new. It’s the pinnacle of what God has been doing all along.

Have you ever been freed from patterns and behaviors that impoverished and diminished your life? Isn’t that a new life? Isn’t that a retelling of the Israelites escaping the bondage of Egypt?

Have you ever had new insights into your life, a new way of seeing the world, another person, or yourself? Every blind man whose eyes were opened by Jesus experienced new life, a resurrection.

Have you ever felt stuck, and without energy or direction in life? Remember the paralyzed man and Jesus saying, “Stand up, take your mat and walk?” That’s resurrection.

What about Jesus cleansing the temple? Haven’t there been times when you cleaned out and made a new start? Maybe that was your resurrection.

Have you ever felt the presence of a loved one who has died? You knew she or he was there. Maybe you spoke to him or heard her voice. More resurrection.

What about the raising of Lazarus? “Unbind him and let him go,” Jesus said. When has your life been unbound? When have you experienced a new freedom that released and enlarged your life?

Think about a time when it felt as if new life had been breathed into you.You felt a new sense of energy, enthusiasm, creativity, and everything was fresh and beautiful. That’s the resurrecting breath of God blowing through your valley of dry bones.

Recall a friend who said or did exactly what you needed when you were in a desolate place and you hadn’t asked for a thing. He or she nourished your life in the same way Jesus fed the multitude in the wilderness.

Have you ever had a relationship that you were sure could not be salvaged? There was nothing left. The hurt was too deep and the distance too wide. And then one day a letter is sent, a phone call is made, or a conversation is started. Something changes and the stone of death is rolled back.

These kind of things are happening all the time in thousands of ways. I’ve come to believe that there are really only two questions to be asked about the Easter story.

The first question is this. Is it still true? Is this story true in your life and my life today? I think that’s our question every year at Easter. It’s not because we think the story might have changed since last year. It’s been the same story for more than 2,000 years. We ask it because our story has changed. Our life is different today from what it was last Easter, and we want to know that Easter is still real.

So let me be clear about this. In whatever ways your life has changed and is different from last Easter, whether you consider it for better, for worse, or a mixture of both, the story is still true. Regardless of who you are, what you’ve done or left undone, what you believe or don’t believe, Easter is still happening. You can count on it. The story was true yesterday, it is true today, and it will be true tomorrow. It may take months or even years for resurrection to free us from the tomb and pull us out of the darkness but it will. That’s the promise of Easter. God never leaves anyone in the darkness of the tomb.

That means Easter isn’t just a past event to be remembered and celebrated. It is the lens through which we are to see everything. It’s a life to be lived. After all, what good is it to us if Christ is risen and we are not? What good is it to us if Jesus is alive and we are not?

Jesus is always going ahead of us rolling back stones, emptying tombs, preparing new places, and calling forth more life. Every cross is flowering with new life, every tomb is becoming a womb of new birth, and every darkness is being overcome by new light. That’s Easter life, and that brings me to my second question.

What difference is Easter making in your life today? We might think of Easter as a verb rather than a noun. It’s active and doing something in us and with us. In what ways are you “Eastering?” Where do you see life and more life arising? Happy Easter!

The Rev. Michael K. Marsh is rector of St. Philip’s Episcopal Church.