If we spent March and early April in the season of Lent, thinking about how our broken lives were part of the reason Christ went to the cross, the goal now is for us to spend April and most of May considering how we can let the Easter good news shine forth from our lives for all the world to see.
Last month I wrote about Easter in terms of “movement”; this month I want to speak about Easter in terms of “location.” First, when Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and found that the stone had been rolled away, her main question was, What have they done to my Lord?(John 20:13,15). In those first moments of Easter, location was the key to everything. Where was Jesus’ body? The answer to that held the central message of Easter, for Jesus’ body was no longer in a tomb because he was alive! Jesus was out in the world, appearing to the disciples and then united in Spirit with the faithful of all times and places as the resurrected Lord.
This resurrection miracle means that Jesus is no longer limited in terms of location. Jesus the risen Christ is one with God the Creator, and therefore available in every place through the power and grace of the Holy Spirit. No one place is privileged over another; all are equi-distant from God as well as equally accessible to God. No place is beyond God’s realm of love and justice, which also means that the Easter message links us to all people near and far. We, like Mary Magdalene, are to tell the good news of Easter to all the world. And wherever others struggle or are treated unjustly, we are to still ask the question Mary asked at the tomb: What have they done to my sister in the Lord? What have they done to my brother in Christ? As the apostle Paul wrote, “If one member [of the body of Christ] suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it” (I Corinthians 12:26). Thanks to the Easter resurrection, this injunction about suffering and honor is no longer bound to any one location.
Second, I want to share an old Jewish legend. Long ago, a man named Isaac lived in Cracow. He was very poor, but he dreamed three times about a great treasure buried under a bridge in the distant city of Prague. So he journeyed there to find it, but discovered that the bridge he had seen in his dream was patrolled day and night by the king’s guards. He circled the spot from a distance, when one of the guards noticed him and called him forward. When asked what he was doing, Isaac quickly told him about his dream. The captain laughed at the idea of believing in such night visions. “If I believed in dreams, I would have to go all the way to Cracow and find some man named Isaac, because I have dreamed that a great treasure lies buried beneath his bed!” Isaac thanks the captain, returned home, pushed aside his bed, and dug up the treasure that had been there all along.
Rabbi Harold Kushner told this story, and his closing words are true for both Jewish and Christian listeners. “What we are seeking is not in the past or in the future. It is not far away or in the possession of others. It is exactly where we are.” For each of us, remember that the location of the Easter good news ultimately is right where we are. This month start with yourself, then share the good news with others in word and deed!