Easter

Read Luke 24:1-11 

Yvette asked me recently, “Do you think I exaggerate?” 

This is one of those questions that men dread. Like, “Do I look fat in this?” Damned if you do, damned if you don’t… There really is no answer. 

I must admit that in the back of my male mind was this little voice saying, “Don’t all women exaggerate?” 

I’m in good company. Even the Gospels report the women have different stories on their return from the tomb. Luke says, “suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them.” The earlier version recorded in Mark recounts that the women saw, “a young man dressed in a white robe.” Matthew says they saw an “angel of the Lord.” John says that Mary was met by “two angels in white,” and then by Jesus.  

No wonder the men found the women’s “words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them.” The story gets more and more fabulous! 

I love the fact that the Gospels don’t try and harmonize themselves as so many Christians have tried. Truth is an elusive thing that changes clothing every day. We meet it serendipitously when we turn a corner surprised to find it wearing the guise of the one person in the world we thought least likely to speak sense. 

I grew up in a culture that taught me to treat all information with skepticism. “I’ll believe it when I see it.” And this is a useful skill for it prevents gullibility. But it can only go so far. There is a limit to its usefulness. There are some things that can only been seen by those who believe… 

Women see a world men can only perceive with effort. So too: children and the poor. Those who wage war do not know the world that is seen by those who receive the “peace of empire”. 

Because of the peculiar world seen by those on the receiving end of other peoples’ exercise of power, there is also a peculiar hope that springs from such people, a hope perhaps born from a position of having nothing to lose… 

It’s the kind of hope that “moves mountains” – Faith. The kind of hope that believes a man can defeat death. The kind of hope that believes all people belong to each other. The kind of hope that believes we can love our enemies. The kind of hope that gets women risking their lives talking to men in public. The kind of hope that allows truth to speak for itself in the moment. 

Sarah tells of a Franciscan blessing which speaks to this hope: “May God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you really can make a difference in this world, so that you are able, with God’s grace, to do what others claim cannot be done.” 

Christ is risen. He is risen indeed.