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April 4, l999
LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL - John
20:1-18
In John's telling of the first Easter it's Mary
Magdalene who goes early and first to the tomb to
discover the stone sealing the tomb had been rolled
aside. She assumes the worst and runs back to the
disciples and reports that "they have taken his body
away." Two disciples, Peter and another, run back to the
tomb where they observe that the death clothes remain
undisturbed as if the body of Jesus just slid
effortlessly from them. They observe that the head
bindings have been neatly bundled. They know that
something is very awry but they, too, are upset - Life is
not beautiful for these friends of Jesus because not one
of them was expecting to ever see him again.
Meanwhile, Mary is waiting outside the tomb. And she
is weeping. Two figures appear to her and ask her why she
is weeping. BECAUSE THEY HAVE TAKEN THE BODY OF MY LORD
AWAY AND I DON'T KNOW WHERE. She keeps on crying. Then
Jesus appears to her but in such a strange form that she
mistakes him for the cemetery caretaker. Jesus also asks
why she is crying: Mary begs the stranger to tell her
where the body has been taken. Then Jesus speaks her
name, MARY. And she recognizes him.
This first talk between the Resurrected Jesus and Mary
is one in a series. Later, he stopped by to see the
disciples. He walked with two to Emmaus. Much later he
revisits the disciples when Thomas, who had been absent
from Jerusalem, is present. Jesus appears here; he
appears there; all of these appearances have elements of
surprise and drama because no one was expecting to ever
see him again.
If these half dozen appearances were the only
testimony to the Resurrected Jesus, I doubt this
congregation or any other would be gathering this Easter
only on the power of memory of these few Resurrection
experiences back them. . But here we are 2,000 years
nearly later celebrating Easter. Something happened to
change the experience of the Resurrected Jesus from a few
and dramatic meetings way back then to the reality of the
always available spiritual presence of Jesus to his
people.
This was because of Jesus' gift of the Holy Spirit to
the Church, a gift highly personalized in John's Gospel
when at his final appearance Jesus literally breathes
upon the disciples imparting to them the Holy Spirit.
This change is in part because all succeeding generations
of Christians have experienced the Holy Spirit in one way
or another. And all these experiences are like the
initial visits of Jesus in these ways: Jesus comes to us
when we do not expect him to visit; Jesus comes to us
when we most need him to be with us. On Easter it is not
only the remembrance of that first Easter we celebrate
but the experience that the Resurrected Christ is with
His Church today.
II
The widely acclaimed Italian film by the title LIFE IS
BEAUTIFUL has also had numerous critics who simply
couldn't accept the idea that life in a concentration
camp could be treated humorously. To try to introduce
lightness and mirth into the holocaust horror has seemed
to many both a sacrilege and an impossibility,
notwithstanding the film's ambition to do just that.
The premise of the film is a young Italian Jewish
father is sent with his six-year-old son to Belsen
Belsen. His son has a remarkable love of games and a
stunning ability to hide and keep quiet, as many games
require. The father interprets the concentration camp
experience as a long playing game in which if the son
keeps quiet, is not discovered by the camp guards, and
does not complain, he will acquire the greatest number of
points and eventually win. When he wins he will be able
to leave the camp.
To make the game believable to his son the father
buffoons and mocks and caricatures many of the more
grotesque camp officials and their insane rules. His
madcap antics introduce the humor which audiences have
loved and critics have dismissed. The film proclaims that
life, even in a concentration camp, can be LIFE CAN BE
BEAUTIFUL.
We can listen to the critics for our Resurrection
faith honors the tragic human experience. After all,
Christ's Resurrection was preceded by his unjust
crucifixion. Faith also honors the voice of skepticism
when it arises from the tragic sense of life. Life was
anything but beautiful for Jesus' friends after his
death. They were lamenting, like Mary, and hiding in
fear. They never expected to see Jesus again and, when
they did, his appearance forced the reversal of their
expectations about their lives. Easter is the divine
example of God reversing the flow of tears and of good
reemerging from the most shadowed of all places, the
tomb. In the film LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL the little boy does
survive to emerge from the tomb of that concentration
camp. Most others, including his father do not survive.
The Resurrection event affirms that God insists that life
will be beautiful for those who believe in Him.
There are indeed some elements of humor in the several
Resurrection appearances particularly in the confusion
about the identity of Jesus. All of Jesus' friends want
to weep, stay confused, and Jesus wants them to rejoice.
Though Jesus never uses the phrase, LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL,
that phrase seems natural to him in his reassurance to
his grieving and disoriented friends.
Oh, Mary, don't you weep, don't you mourn! Life is
beautiful!
Jesus by his very death affirmed his Heavenly
Father's divine NEVERTHELESS would be, like a power stamp
of cancellation, pressed upon the tears of his suffering
and ours. NEVERTHELESS, God will not let Jesus die for
nothing. NEVERTHELESS, God will not let the circumstances
and powers that would keep us in tears and chains to
triumph. NEVERTHELESS, THE TOMB IS EMPTY AND LIFE IS
BEAUTIFUL.
Jesus promised to his followers that he would return
but none understood that promise. Only when it happened,
were the tearful and fearful empowered to be witnesses to
His continuing presence among them. We celebrate his
Resurrection and the ultimate defeat of the forces of
darkness today in part by standing on Jesus' promises
about his Resurrection and his awaited Return, and in
part on the witnesses to his Resurrection and in part on
our own faith experience that Christ Lives and that he is
never far from those who through the power of the Holy
Spirit call upon Jesus to come and be with them.
Skeptics will persist in saying it's all nonsense.
Just as no beauty and no love of life could come from the
experience of life in a concentration camp, so no living
presence can come forth from an empty tomb. We may wonder
why Jesus in order to cut off the skeptics did not appear
to his enemies: to Herod and Pontius Pilate and the High
Priest Caiphas. Would that not have made the Resurrection
intelligible and unassailable to the most hardened
skeptics of succeeding generations? Frankly, I doubt it.
Surely the main point of God's plan in resurrecting Jesus
was not to answer and quiet his critics but to empower
and motivate Jesus' friends to live their lives fully and
to draw upon their faith in working for the Kingdom.
Neither the succession of doubt, nor even the ending of
tragedy, guarantee advance of God's Kingdom. That happens
because faith in Jesus goes to work.
And Jesus went to work. The symbol for Easter is an
empty tomb because Jesus got up and got out. He told his
followers that he was going before them. Just as they
would never find him in the tomb, they would not find him
in any confines of crimped faith. Because of that promise
that Jesus is always out ahead of us in Kingdom work this
must follow for us:
Easter calls us to experience the resurrection in our
own lives. And our ability to proclaim LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL
is a witness to that personal experience. Like the
disciples we need to move on and out from fears that
cling to us, like the death clothes wanted to stay
wrapped about Jesus. Jesus did not hang around the tomb,
nor did he hang out very long with the disciples:
Instead, he said he was going ahead of them and they
would encounter him when they moved ahead on their own.
But he's risen. He's ahead of us. He's beckoning us to
follow him. He is bringing in the Kingdom of God in the
next millenium and calling to us: Don't cry back
there…come on with me. Jesus is wherever the next
turning on the road to the Kingdom of God is. The
encounter with Christ liberates something in us, a power
we did not know we had, a hope, a capacity for life, a
resilience, and ability to bounce back when we thought we
were completely defeated, a capacity to grow and change,
a power of creative transformation….the capacity to
proclaim LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL.
Pastor Gene Preston
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