I wonder if you can remember a time when you were not tall enough to see. In front of you is a wall, and perhaps a parent or an older sibling is able to see over it, they can see what’s on the other side, they can tell you about it, but you want of course to see for yourself, so you say, hey can you lift me up, I’d like to see too?
Our lives might be thought of as a series of walls that at one point or another we can’t see over, and either we need someone to help lift us up, or we just have to be patient, never easy, and wait until we grow tall enough. Some of us perhaps feel like we’re still waiting! As we get to see over each wall, we find we can get to a point that we can climb over, and then at some point there is another wall and we’re back needing help or having to wait. Some of us find some walls impossible, some of us will always need help, and so sometimes we have to find another way round.
Eventually we all meet a very big wall. This wall is bigger than all of us. None of us can see over it. None of us, even when lifted up can see the other side. This wall feels permanent, fixed, solid, but we know, we feel, that there is something over it. We might call this wall Death. We know about Death, some of us learn about it fairly early on but most of the time the wall is in the distance far off, and we don’t have to think about it, and there are lots of other walls to try and see over, climb over, cross over, to distract us.
Right now the wall called Death feels close, it feels very near. For some of us it feels like it’s surrounding us on every side and it’s all we can see. We are overwhelmed by Death, to the extent that we are trying to find ways to protect our children from the news, and perhaps also ourselves, because its all too much to take in. We are confronted by Death, standing over us, casting a shadow over our days. We don’t want to die. We don’t want those we love to die. The shadow of Death though is not shifting. I don’t say this to add to our overwhelmed–ness, but to name the reality, the usually half-whispered reality, which is currently becoming a louder reality. We cannot get away from this wall.
And yet. And yet. And yet there is Jesus. I want to tell you about Jesus. Jesus was probably no taller than you or me, and he knows this wall named Death. He met death in a horrible horrific way. Death was a sentence given to him. Jesus has faced the wall we call Death. He has stared Death down, He has felt its terrible blow, He has experienced taking a final breath. Death put him in the ground, sealed up tight, locked down. Jesus’ story is like every other story, but — the good news hinges on a but — but the thing about Jesus is that God has shown him the other side, God has lifted him up, raised him up, to see the joy and life beyond the wall, beyond Death. Jesus has climbed over, gone ahead, and walked in the light, and grace and beauty of the other side, and he comes back to tell us about it, to say to us he has seen future, he is living the new creation.
He is the older sibling who says, I can see, its ok, I know what there is on the other side. Jesus, is the Brother who says: I am the Living Hope, I am the Good News, I am the Way and the Truth. I am the Resurrection and the Life. What we celebrate today is the wonderful joyful glorious news that this wall surrounding us is no longer something to fear. We are now confronted by Grace. Jesus has made us a window, and he lifts us up, raises us up that we might glimpse through, that we might have Hope, that we might have Life, even now.
This is Easter. This is the news I share with you, I proclaim to you. It’s my charge today, to help announce the joy that is the risen Jesus so that hear it, feel it, grasp it, so that your pulse quickens, your hearts beat a little faster, your hands clap, your feet even dance, your voices sing alleluia. We are asking God to Easter us.
Today once again we are invited into Hope, we are invited into Life, we are invited into Faith that Jesus is already on the other side, and has made us a way to join him. Do not be afraid says Jesus. See the new horizon. See the new reality. See the new creation, the promised land. Death will meet all us, but we see the glory, we feel the joy, we taste the freedom of Death undone and we know, we believe, we have faith that the death and resurrection of Jesus, means Life for us, that nothing can separate us from Jesus, nothing can separate us from the love of God, not even Death. Christ is risen! Alleluia! He is risen indeed. Happy Easter!
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