How can I tell that spring is here? Well, the calendar tells me so. And it is a bit warmer these days. It was actually in the twenties this morning when I came to work - which is a big change for the better. We celebrated Easter on Sunday with special music and festive worship. But that is not how I know Spring is here. As my son said, so far we've been having a pretty good winter this spring.
But the sun is still strong coming in through the window. The days are really growing longer and even though the temperatures aren't great, the sun's rays are stronger and have melted the snow off of roads and sidewalks, and the piles are getting smaller. So even though it still looks like a lot of winter out there to my son from Kansas City, it is beginning to look and feel like spring.
I think in some ways, that is how the first Easter must have felt to the followers of Jesus. The signs of resurrection and new life were at first so small, it was easy to miss them - and to dismiss them.
When the women first came back from the tomb to tell the good news that Jesus was risen, their news was dismissed as idle women's gossip. (Luke 24:11) The two men at the tomb couldn't have been that different looking, even for angels. The tomb itself hadn't changed, it was just empty. The stone across the entrance was moved away and the cloths used to wrap Jesus were still laying on the rock. But early that day, that's all there was.
In their grief, fear, and uncertain faith, the disciples still did not understand that Jesus had meant for this to happen all along. Although Jesus had predicted this more than once, it had never really sunk into their consciousness.
We might think that Jesus appearing to Mary Magdalene and then the other disciples would have fixed all that - surely then they all believed. But after more than once or twice of spending time with the risen Jesus, even after Thomas touched where the nails and spear had been, the disciples continued to have problems believing the resurrection.
40 days after the resurrection, on the top of the mountain, just before Jesus ascends into heaven, we are told that some of the disciples STILL didn't believe. It is not until the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost that they are empowered with the faith and courage to go and tell the good news!
I ponder this because I think there are a lot of us in this story. Just like it would be too easy to miss the spring for the winter that is still all around us, like the disciples, it is hard for us to believe so certainly. That Jesus is risen from the dead is still hard for us to grasp.
So how can we be expected to go and tell this good news when we are unsure ourselves? Right?
Wrong question. Mary and the other women who go to the tomb, the travelers on the way to Emmaus, the disciples even on the mountain that last time, they are given the task to go and tell the good news. We are not supposed to wait until the moment when our faith is strong and perfect.
We have the good news now that death doesn't win. We have the good news right now God loves and accepts us just the way we are. This broken, weary world that we live in needs that message right now and our uncertainty and our brokenness is part of the message. Just as God loves and accepts us just the way we are, so also God loves and accepts the world. Our imperfection is witness to the truth of God's love and is certainly not an excuse to keep quiet.
Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:16-20
