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"When Is an Ending Not the End?"
The women, for all their loyalty and courage, walked to the tomb without expecting Jesus' resurrection. They reckoned only with death and were fully convinced by what they had already witnessed that they were at the end of their relationship with Jesus. They went out to pay their final respects and to offer the parting gesture of a ritual washing and anointing of his corpse. They were looking for the broken body of Jesus of Nazareth who was defeated in death. Once that is done, it will all be over. It is the end. They will move on as human beings always have done, to piece together the fragments of their lives. And his life will just fade quietly into memory like that of so many others. How admirably these women cope with their grief.
Life is like that; it has a series of endings. Cut, dried, finished! That's the way it is. It's a part of human nature to end things, to close down relationships. It is comfortable. It is arranged, managed. We want to know when to end things. Knowing when allows us the say, allows us to keep the power. We can narrow, limit, accept, confine life. We apply this sense of an ending to relationships and commitments. He's retired, the end; the marriage won't work, the end; life after death, it is not possible, the end; it costs too much, the end; it's hopeless, the end. This burial detail mentality is really the counsel of despair. We have lived too long with the death-dealing, despair-creating ways of the world. But closure is always premature. There are lots of things we want to say the end to. Are we premature? The women were; "the end" was not theirs to say; neither is it ours! It isn't over till it's over; till God says so. When is an ending not the end? When a dead Jesus rises from the tomb. The women were stunned, shocked; the tomb was empty, the angel said Jesus was already out and at work and that they had something to do! They were thrown up against something with which they couldn't cope. Some time in the dark before dawn God has come back into God's world and turned it upside down! The tomb is not Jesus' destiny; death could not have the last word. When God raised Jesus, God not only trumped suffering and death, God also overturned all the verdicts, confounded all the critics, and vindicated Jesus and his cause once and for all. It wasn't over for Jesus and his love. Now that love is nearer to us than we are to ourselves. It wasn't over for the disciples who deserted their master in the crisis of death, and for Peter who had denied he ever knew Jesus. Nothing will be in vain. Life will succeed. In the end all will be well. He said it clearly, "I live and you shall live also." It wasn't over for the women. They realized it wasn't over. It was not the end. Fear and trembling seized them, and they fled speechless. And the gospel stops right there. But it's not the end. Done? No way, it has just begun. When is an ending not the end: when a dead Jesus rises from the tomb, and a gospel ends in the middle of a sentence. Fear and trembling seized them. Well it should. They glimpsed the awesome, powerful love of God that declares in no uncertain terms it isn't over. They experienced the fearful, resplendent presence of the living God. They experienced what was unutterable. It should seize us as well. It isn't over, when we in despair say it is. We can not close down the possibilities, limit the universe, narrow life. The resurrection is about freedom, God and ours. It is about freedom from the evils we deplore, freedom from the fears that long have bound us. When is an ending not the end? When fear and trembling seize us, when the organ speaks and the trumpet sounds, when we find the courage to say, "Let us seize the day to live"; it isn't over when love absorbs hate, when hope overcomes despair, when life is affirmed and celebrated in the midst of death, when joy challenges fear. The movie "The Dead Poet's Society" has a remarkable ending. It is the tragic end of Mr. Keeting played by Robin Williams and his whole attempt to teach prep school boys to think, to feel, to be free, to imagine, to create. On a previous occasion he had encouraged his students to come forward and stand up on the teacher's desk to get a different perspective on life. And he encouraged them to be daring and call out, echoing the words of Walt Whitman about A. Lincoln, "Captain, my Captain." Now it's over. With the tragic death of a student, Mr. Keeting returns to the classroom to collect his things. It is the end. But the boys can't let it end especially like this. In an act of defiance, Todd Anderson climbs up on his desk and says "Captain, my Captain." It wasn't over. Mr. Keeting had been heard. Easter is God saying, "It isn't over. It's not the end." Life’s pains and wounds can be embraced by grace and forgiveness flourish. When is an ending not the end: when a dead Jesus rises from the tomb, when fear and trembling seizes us, whenever one human being finds the courage to move forward in life. Carpe diem! Seize the day! Lives can be changed, challenges embraced, futures entered, eyes opened and grace received! The cross is empty, but so is the tomb! May you this Easter feel that fear and trembling. May you know it isn't over. God is not finished! Jesus is on the loose, on the same side of the door as the women and us, all of us. God will not be shut out. God is unwilling to be confined to sacred space; God is on the loose in our realm. When is an ending not the end? When the realization dawns on us that God is not finished with you, with me, with the world, with God’s church. This is that day for this church. Hallelujah! Amen! |
F.
Harry Daniel