There was a family that had moved to a new city, and after they got settled in their new home, they did all the other things you might do in order to get acclimated to a new place.
They learned where the grocery store and posts office was.
They asked locals about which restaurants were the best to visit.
And of course they took time to get their two kids settled into their new school.
Well – next came the important part – it was Easter Sunday and they were on their way to celebrate Easter Mass in a new church.
The parents, not wanting to be embarrassed, tried to give their kids a quick brush up on their catholic knowledge. So the mother asked the kids – “Do you know what Holy Thursday is?”
Their 10-year old daughter in the back seat answered: “That is when Jesus called his friends over for one last dinner with him.”
Next, she asked: “Do you know what Good Friday is?”
Again, their 10-year old daughter answered from the back seat: “That is when Jesus was put on the cross and died, and then they put him in a cave.”
“Very good,” she said.
Her last question: “Do you know what the meaning of Easter is?”
Yet again, their 10-year old answered: “That is when Jesus came back to life!”
Well – not wanting to be upstaged by his older sister anymore, their 7-year old son called out from the back seat: “Yeah, and when he came out of the cave he saw his shadow and there was six more weeks of winter!”
The mystery and wonder of the resurrection is certainly somewhat hard for children to grasp the meaning of – but it’s often hard for even ADULTS to grasp the mystery of the resurrection, too.
In the gospel today we get a first-hand account of how hard it was for even the first disciples to grasp the resurrection.
It says that Jesus stood in their midst and said PEACE BE WITH YOU – and they were so startled and terrified by his presence they thought they were seeing a ghost.
The first question Jesus asks them is “Why are you troubled and why to questions arise in your hearts?”
Why are we troubled???
Why are we troubled? Um – maybe because a couple days ago we saw you die and now you’re standing in front of us. Right here in front of us. ALIVE!
Could it be that the TRUTH of the resurrection was too much for the first disciples to grasp? Could it have been that their hearts and brains could not process fast enough what was unfolding in front of their eyes?
Have you ever experienced something so unbelievable that it was scary? So unbelievable that your brain refused to send information to your heart that is was real?
Many years ago I was at a conference, and one of they keynote speakers was a woman named Maria.
Maria was the mother of 4, and her oldest son served in Desert Storm.
After a bombing in Kuwait, word came that her son had died. His whole unit could not even be found in the disaster area.
Her son, however, did not die in the bombing, but it was simply assumed that he did. His unit fled the area. Without radio communication they had no contact with the rest of their troops, and in order to stay alive they had to go into hiding.
After being found, his unit was sent home, and when he got off the plane and greeted his mother, she was frozen. She couldn’t move – not even to embrace him.
Maria said that she was terrified to grab a hold of him to hug him and kiss his face – because she thought – what if this isn’t real? What if I go in for a hug and feel this extreme love and joy only to wake up from a dream and find out he’s really not here.
The truth can scare us sometimes. It can rock our world and even at times change our perception of reality.
As humans we also have a tendency to doubt in an instant when we feel something is too good to be true – even when it is true.
And it doesn’t need to be something extreme, like Maria’s story.
I can be something as simple as being afraid to follow through with a surgery or treatment to heal your body because you don’t truly believe your situation can be helped.
Maybe you are waiting to hear that your mortgage application has been approved and when they call you to say it’s all good you ask 5 times if they are sure its all good, because “we never have good luck. Gosh if we didn’t have bad luck we’d have no luck at all.”
What better news can there be for the disciples?
Jesus is alive!
So perhaps the disciples were not troubled because they were afraid – perhaps they were troubled because they thought it was TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE.
After all, Jesus – throughout his mission, did prepare them to carry on after his death.
After all, Jesus did foresee the events of his death and literally told the disciples what would happen.
After all, Jesus did tell them he would die but be raised on the third day full of life.
Could his presence and the GOOD NEWS of his return be too much for anyone to fathom and wrap their minds and hearts around?
I have witnessed times where there is a delay of experiencing extreme joy – or even that the truth is so good that you don’t believe it.
My wife Siobhan and I have been really lucky in the fact that no matter where we have lived, our neighbors have all been fantastic. On the first floor of our first apartment, there was an amazing couple that we became very good friends with.
They were two deeply compassionate women that got married about 10 years before Siobhan and I met them.
They wanted nothing more than to have children. Their patience was remarkable, but started to wear after 10 years of waiting for an adoption to go through, which clearly was not happening.
Well, the day came. They got the call they had been waiting 10 years to get.
From that phone call to the day their beautiful baby boy made it into their arms for the first time was 11 weeks.
Every Monday afternoon during those 11 weeks they would sit at their dining room table at 2pm and call the agency. They would call to check on the status – that is, to make sure it was actually happening, because they didn’t think it would.
The caseworker from agency assured them they didn’t have to call each week – but they couldn’t let go of their doubt. Their hearts wanted something so bad that their brains were protecting them from possible disappointment.
Much like this couple’s delay in belief even though they felt that initial joy in their heart, the disciples have a delay in belief.
When we hear about mysteries like the resurrection, it often creates more questions that we are not able to answer.
Why did they not recognize Jesus at first?
What does heaven look like?
When we get there will be look ourselves?
Will we truly reunite with our loved ones and will we recognize them, or is it a hopeful promise?
Will there be ice cream in heaven, because if not is it really worth all the fuss?
While the first disciples were the witnesses to the first PHYSICAL risen Christ, we get to be the witnesses to the Christ that is risen and among us each day of our lives here on Earth.
We get to be the witnesses on how Jesus operates today in our very real and ordinary lives.
We get to see the many forms of the risen Christ show up in places we least expect.
Now – I can admit… It is hard to turn on the news or even look out into our own communities each day and not see broken people, broken systems and what we might labeled as a world in trouble.
Illness, diseases, an ongoing pandemic, systemic racism, people not getting the mental health help they need, our own personal challenges and darkness…
With all that is happening around us – and the constant reminder of these things as we read the news and scroll though social media, it can be unbelievable at first when we hear GOOD NEWS.
But good news out there, and I promise you it is abundant.
Easter and the resurrection of Jesus tell us just that.
Jesus has risen and Jesus is among us!
Now we might not have the luxury of knowing what the post-resurrection Jesus looks like, but here is the good news….
We can find Jesus by recognizing His work in eachother and in the light and goodness happening all around us every day, right outside of our doors.
WHERE can you find Jesus today? I can tell you this – Jesus does not just reside within the walls of this church. Jesus does reside only in the places we expect to find him.
Rather, Jesus resides in every act of love that we experience.
Jesus can be found in every act of compassion that we send out the world and that the world gives back to us.
We can recognize Jesus in a stranger on the street corner, or in line next to us at the grocery store.
We can recognize Jesus in the essence of spirit of Jesus not only around us, but also WITHIN us.
Look for Jesus today. Jesus has indeed risen and all you need to do recognize Him is seek out good news.
Priest, writer and theologian Father Henry Nouwen said:
“Each individual human being can claim the spirit of Jesus as the guiding spirit of their life. In that spirit we can speak and act freely – and confidently with the knowledge that the same spirit that resided in Jesus resides in us.”
You all have permission to claim that.
GO OUT AND OWN IT… the world needs us.
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