Breath of life at Easter
Here
we are on the other side of Good Friday. On the other side of death,
celebrating life once more. It is easy to think that Easter fixes Good Friday –
fixes Jesus humiliation and places Jesus where he belongs in glory in heaven. There
is no fixing. Easter affirms Good Friday as the moment of Christ’s glorification.
In Jesus death the ways of rivalry with the need to have more status, power,
money, stuff, people; and the way of compliance are shown to be empty. Easter
does not correct Good Friday, but declares that on Good Friday Christ was glorified
and love won. All other ways are death. God’s way of compassion and generosity through
the cross is life. And this way is to be lived out now.
Karoline
Lewis[1]
puts this another way. ‘(R)esurrection is not only the promise of life after
death, which, after all, would be enough, but also the assurance that the
life-giving love of God will always move the stones away. Tombs are just that
-- containers for the dead. And while we seem rather content these days with
such spaces -- those dead places that fuel corruption, deception, racism,
sexism, suspicion, rejection, marginalization, misogyny, judgment, and fear --
God continues to roll those stones away that keep life at bay. And when the stale
air of decay meets God’s breath that creates new life and the possibility of
hope and peace, death truly is no more.”
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