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 Mary was the first to proclaim the resurrection,
and she was the first to resist resurrection’s new creation. She was
the first to vocalize her fear and frustration about an open door
leading to an empty tomb.
Mary was the first not only to encounter Christ but to recognize the
risen Christ. She had the first post-resurrection encounter, and she
was the first since Peter at the Transfiguration to attempt to make
a moment last forever.
Mary was the first to bring the news that Christ defeated death.
Do you see what the door has opened?
No longer must we live on this side of tragedy, but now we share in
Christ’s resurrection and live on that side of triumph! No longer
will death have the final word, but God will.
Easter is a season for resurrection and a time for re-creation. It
is a season of fifty days celebrating the Light of Christ. As the
poet E.E.Cummings puts it, “i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the son’s birthday; this is the birth day of life and
love and wings: and of the gay great happening illimitably earth.”
The old life is gone, and the new life is here.
Mary was the first to see it. Mary was the first to proclaim about
it. Mary was the first to walk through the open door, from death to
life!
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Mary ran, and beautiful are the feet of those who
bring good news to tell them, “Love is stronger than death! Death
could not contain our Lord. Christ is risen! Christ is risen,
indeed!”
Funny isn’t it, this journey of faith... the story of our Savior?
That in order to get to life, he had first to walk through death. In
order for the news to be good on Sunday, there had to be the bad
news on Friday. And yet, in both the good and the bad, the beautiful
and tragic, Jesus walked through it all with love, which becomes for
us infinite life—a participation in God, God’s self!
The door is open, friends. Mary entered it and came out to receive
the Risen Christ. In her, we see the truth that no feeling and no
moment is final. Instead, God in Christ says, “This is what will
last—my life and my love will always and forever have the final
word.”
Now, how shall we live as the Risen Christ?
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