Friends,
in today’s Gospel Mary Magdalene and the other Mary encounter the risen
Jesus. I know that I have harped often on this theme, but I do so only
because the Bible
harps on it—and also because the culture tends so thoroughly to miss the
point. I’m talking about the meaning of Easter. Many people agree with
David Cameron, the former Prime Minister of Great Britain, who once said
that the message of Easter is "kindness, compassion, hard work, and
responsibility."
Now,
don’t get me wrong: I’m for all of those things. But so is, I would
guess, any decent person from any religious or nonreligious background.
Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, Jews, and fair-minded atheists and agnostics
would all sign on for those values.
None
of it is getting anywhere near the
heart of what Easter really means. What Easter means is that Jesus of
Nazareth, who claimed throughout his public life to be speaking and
acting in the very person of God, and who was brutally put to death by
Roman executioners, rose bodily from the dead. That’s what it’s all
about.
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