No video at the Tomb, if you please

On the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark, and saw the stone removed from the tomb. (John 20:1)

Our stalwart Easter homilist, Father T, had an interesting take on the Resurrection story.

Father T is an academic, so has done his fair share of reading in matters religious. He told us how, over the years, many theologians and scholars have offered an opinion about what happened on the first Easter Sunday. Theological big hitters like Rudolph Bultmann and Karl Rahner, among many others, have had their say about what happened on the third day. They don't agree with each other, naturally, but their words have filled the empty air in more than a few graduate theology classrooms.

Yet the gospels leave what happened at the tomb as an utter blank. No evangelist tries to fill in how the dead body of Jesus left the tomb. And they say nothing about how his crucified, mortal remains were transformed into a resurrected reality. Sure, the gospel writers talk about the the events around the resurrection -- earthquakes, thunder, angels and terrified soldiers. But none of them shows Jesus walking out of the tomb, or being carried from it, or disappearing into the air or dissolving in a burst of radiation.

Instead, we, like the disciples, are confronted with an absence -- a negative space -- an empty tomb. A place where a body was but is no longer.

But while the New Testament writers draw a veil over the moment of resurrection, they are very clear about the effect that it had. Small-town fishermen, crooks and assassins (Peter, Matthew and Simon Zealotes, anyone?) become fearless preachers, movement leaders and miracle workers. Terrifying persecutors become world-roving missionaries. Women lead house churches. Slaves become brothers with their masters. Widows are fed. Assets are shared lovingly.

 

The New Testament's meta-narrative -- the story behind and beyond the story -- is this: details about the resurrection are irrelevant. What is important is the transformation that the resurrection event has on those who experienced it first hand. It is through ordinary people that the risen Jesus is made present. Among the "two or three gathered together in his name" that he is made manifest. If Resurrection means anything, it is that the Galilean man who was visible in Palestine for a year (or two or three), and to a few thousand people, has become the timeless presence who is available to us even today.

Jesus, the Resurrected One, has left the tomb empty, but has entered the empty, lonely and scarred spaces in our hearts, where his healing embrace is an invitation to all. A gift to all ages, all people and to every land. And a challenge. For we are charged to see him alive -- in the faces of those who live on this side of the grave.

And at the end, when we enter into the presence of the King, we will not be asked to compare and contrast the resurrection views of Bultmann and Rahner, with numbered citations from their works. We will be asked if we recognized the presence of the Risen Lord in the faces of our stricken neighbors. And brought them the comforting spices and linens our charity and love.