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| Women at the Tomb of Christ, very early in the morning on the first day of the week. Photo: Matthew Duckett |
“On the
first day of the week, at early dawn, the women who had accompanied Jesus came
to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared.”
If you
would like a private devotion for Easter week, may I suggest that you do
something that the Lectionary doesn’t do, and read the last chapter of St
Luke’s Gospel, chapter 24, all in one go.
We have
just heard the first part of that chapter. A new day has begun, it is first
light, early dawn. But what becomes apparent as you read through the last
chapter of Luke is that this new day just goes on, and on, and on. It is a day
that never ends, and all the resurrection events that are related in the last
chapter happen on that one same day.
The
angels speak to the women, and they to the apostles, who don’t believe them.
That same day two disciples are walking to Emmaus, seven miles from Jerusalem;
the risen Lord walks with them, but they do not know it. As they get near to
Emmaus they remark that it is almost evening and the day is nearly over; they
invite the stranger in, and suddenly he is revealed to them in the breaking of
the bread.
And
then, suddenly, it is as though time stops. That same hour they returned to
Jerusalem – seven miles, on foot, that same hour. They tell the others how they
have met the Lord, and hear from them that he has, meantime, appeared to Simon.
Then the Lord himself stands among them, speaks to them, eats, opens their minds
to the scriptures, leads them out to Bethany, and ascends into heaven.
And all
this happens in this one day that never ends.
Now we
may well be thinking, hang on a minute, doesn’t Luke tell us in Acts, his
second book, that forty days passed between the resurrection and the ascension
of Jesus? Indeed he does. So why, in his Gospel, does he tell us that it
happened the same day?
I don’t
think this is a mistake. Luke is too good a storyteller to have have failed to
spot such a basic continuity error. What I think he is doing is telling us
about two different kinds of time.
Firstly,
there is the time of history, the time we are used to in this world, time
marked by the clock, that passes and is gone, through which we live our limited
span of life. In the book of Acts Luke begins the story of the Church, which
then carries on through history. So, naturally, he tells that story as it
unfolds through historical time, beginning with the forty days between the
resurrection and the ascension.
But at
the end of his Gospel he is telling us about something different. Historical
time gives way to resurrection time. The endless cycle of days that pass and
are gone is broken open. In his resurrection Jesus has stepped out of the seven
days of time that repeat and repeat but go nowhere, and has stepped into the
eighth day, the day of resurrection, the day of God’s eternity that is without
limit.
The
last chapter of Luke’s Gospel then becomes the story of what happens when the
disciples encounter this new kind of time, what happens when God’s eternity
erupts into history, what happens when God’s limitless life bursts in to the
world where, up until now, life’s brief span has been measured out and is gone.
So the
new day with which this chapter opens is something completely different: God’s
eternity rising on the world of history, the resurrection exploding into the
world as we know it and changing everything.
The people
to whom this news is entrusted are women. They are named, Mary Magdalene,
Joanna, and Mary the Mother of James, named not only here but also in Chapter
8. Luke was not an eyewitness of the Gospel events so his naming them strongly
suggests that these women were the sources of some of his information. This in
itself is startling, for in the patriarchal society of the day women could not
give evidence in court, but in the Gospel the testimony of these women becomes
the rock solid foundation for the faith of the Church. Things are shifting
already. The boundaries that Jesus was continually crossing in his life, the
outsiders he was always bringing in, become central in this new life of the
resurrection.
The
other disciples don’t yet believe. Their minds just aren’t big enough to grasp
the enormity of the triumph of Jesus Christ, his resurrection something they
never imagined. They need to be opened to the new life that Jesus has entered,
they too need to step into resurrection time in which life is God and God is
without limit. And they will; Jesus will open their minds and send them out to
change the world. The Book of Acts tells the story of that, the story of the
Church, a people who live both in time and in eternity, walking with Jesus in
the resurrection day that never ends whilst at the same time carrying on their
mission through history.
And
this is what the church does still. There are 28 chapters in Acts in the Bible,
but the story of the Church is continuous; we are probably now living through
something like Acts chapter 600. And, at the same time, we are still in Luke
chapter 24, in the day that never ends, walking with Jesus to Emmaus,
recognising him in the breaking of the bread as he opens our minds to his word.
God’s
eternity is present in every moment of the time that passes and is gone. The
Church is the concrete living reality that joins the two together in mission
and service, in prayer and sacrament; walking through history whilst living
with the Spirit of Christ, risen from the dead. In the words of an Easter hymn,
now is eternal life, if risen with Christ we stand.
As we
remember our baptisms and celebrate the Eucharist tonight God’s eternity once
more bursts in on the time that passes and is gone. The Resurrection of Christ
opens to us eternal life, here and now, and throughout our lives as we follow
him along the road, meet him in the breaking of bread and hear him speaking to
us in the words of scripture.
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