"Christmas has a large and colourful cast of characters including not only the 3 principals themselves but the Angel Gabriel, the Innkeeper, the Shepherds, 3 Wise Men, King Herod, Star of Bethlehem, and even the animals kneeling on the straw. In one form or another, we have seen them represented so often we would recognise them anywhere. We have made a major production of it and as minor attractions, have also added the carols, presents and trees. With Easter, it is entirely different.
The Gospels are far from clear as to just what happened. It began in the dark. The stone had been rolled aside. Matthew alone speaks of an earthquake. In the tomb, there were 2 white-clad figures or possibly just one. Mary Magdalen seems to have gotten there before anyone else. There was a man she thought at first was a gardener. Perhaps Mary the mother of James was with her and another woman named Joanna. One account says Peter came too with one of the other disciples. Elsewhere the suggestion is that there were only the women and that the disciples, who were somewhere else, didn't believe the women's story when they heard it. There was the sound of people running, of voices. Matthew speaks of 'fear and great joy.' Confusion was everywhere. There is no agreement even as to the role of Jesus himself. Did he appear at the tomb or only later? Where? To whom did he appear? What did he say? What exactly did he do?
The Gospels are far from clear as to just what happened. It began in the dark. The stone had been rolled aside. Matthew alone speaks of an earthquake. In the tomb, there were 2 white-clad figures or possibly just one. Mary Magdalen seems to have gotten there before anyone else. There was a man she thought at first was a gardener. Perhaps Mary the mother of James was with her and another woman named Joanna. One account says Peter came too with one of the other disciples. Elsewhere the suggestion is that there were only the women and that the disciples, who were somewhere else, didn't believe the women's story when they heard it. There was the sound of people running, of voices. Matthew speaks of 'fear and great joy.' Confusion was everywhere. There is no agreement even as to the role of Jesus himself. Did he appear at the tomb or only later? Where? To whom did he appear? What did he say? What exactly did he do?
This is not a major production at all, and the minor attractions we have created around it, the bunnies, eggs and hot-cross buns - have so little to do with what it's all about that they neither add much or subtract much. It is not really even much of a story when you come right down to it, and that is of course the power of it. It doesn't have the ring of great drama. It has the ring of truth. If the gospel writers had wanted to tell it in a way to convince the world that Jesus indeed rose from the dead, they would presumably have done it with all the skill and fanfare they could muster. Here there is no skill, no fanfare. They seem to be telling it simply the way it was. The narrative is as fragmented, shadowy, incomplete as life itself. When it comes to just what happened, there can be no certainty. That something unimaginable happened, there can be no doubt.
The symbol of Easter is simply the empty tomb. You can't depict or domesticate emptiness. You can't make it into pageants and string it with lights. It doesn't move people to give presents to each other or sing old songs. It ebbs and flows all around us, the Eastertide. Even the great choruses of Handel's Messiah sound a little like a handful of crickets chirping under the moon.
He rose. A few saw him briefly and talked to him. If it is true, there is nothing left to say. If it is not true, there is nothing left to say. For believers and unbelievers both, life has never been the same again. For some neither has death. What is left now is the emptiness. There are those who, like Magdalen, will never stop searching it till they find his face.
adapted from frederick buechner: Whistling in the Dark
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