The real miracles of Easter

Scholars pretty much agree that Mark is the oldest as well as the sparest of the gospels. In it, we see nothing that is not absolutely necessary to the incredible story the writer is trying to convey. The Jesus of Mark refers to himself not as Messiah or “Son of God” but as the “Son of Man,” identifying himself not with the One who sent him, but rather with those he came to save. And that is kind of what Easter is all about: not simply a miraculous rising from the dead, but rather, the story of a God who so loved, so yearned for an intimate relationship with his creation, that he became one of us, lived and then died with and for us, conquering even the grace so that we could become one with him.

Easter reminds us that we were created in love by a God who is love — a love more powerful than even death itself. That’s the real miracle — that our God is dynamic, ever active, always making something new, something redemptive, from the ashes of what went before. That’s the God who gave himself on the cross and rose again, a God who was born as his beloved children are born, walked among us, laughed and cried with us, and then died among those most accursed of humanity so that in death’s ultimate defeat on Easter morning, we could know that no one is outside the circle of God’s love.

In Mark’s Easter story as it was originally written, the story ends with the discovery of the empty tomb. There are no appearances of Jesus after Easter as there are in the other gospels. Maybe that’s because Jesus wants us to pick up and write the rest of the salvation story. He doesn’t give us all the answers, he simply leaves us a message that “he has gone on ahead of you to Galilee, there you will see him.”

Maybe that means he wants us to do more than show up in church once or twice a year, maybe what he really wants, is for us to go and do as he taught us, every day — to be the blessed community he called on us to be. Maybe Easter is just the beginning, a good place to start. Why not come down and see for yourself this Sunday?

Mark Lukens is the pastor the Bethany Congregational Church, 100 Main St., East Rockaway.