Resurrection Day 2012

We feasted last night. A royal feast it was too. Succulent lamb, slow roasted over open coals with a rosemary-white wine-mustard sauce. Potatoes Rosti with garlic and rosemary. Onion Gratin with gruyere. Butter lettuce with pear and gorgonzola. We feasted with joy and laughter. Delight was at our right hand, and festal pleasure at our left. It was a feast to remember. Grand though it was, last night was a mere preamble to this morning. All of last night was an appetizer, a small plate, shared among friends as we awaited the main course. Last night was the teaser plate the waiter brings to show off their specials. Last night, our mouths watered at the sight of it. Today we feast for real.

Its hard to imagine what the women in the garden must have been feeling that first of all Sunday Mornings. We have been living for 2000 years in Resurrection light and so our eyes have grown accustomed to the beauty. But for them, the sun had only just risen, as Mark's Gospel says. This new daylight was foreign to their eyes. Staring, open mouthed at the stone rolled away, terror must have filled their minds. Not only was their teacher dead, but now someone has stollen the body. Even the rights and privileges of the mourner were taken away from them. As they stooped to enter the tomb to make sure the body was not still there, they received a shock. The tomb was filled with light. Not light from the day outside, nor light from an oiled wick. A different kind of light altogether. A light that made our own sun look like shadow. It was coming from a young man dressed in white, apparently having waited just for them. The light must have thrown them to their faces. Even reflective glory is too magnificent to look at for long, when the glory comes from Him. Then words were spoken. Unthinkable words.

Today we feast at the table of our Lord. He himself has laid the table with his own pierced hands. From His pierced side came water and blood. We have been washed in that water, made clean and fit, granted access to this table. As we sit we find our goblets filled with His lifeblood, and on our plates, the bread from Heaven. It is on the body and blood of our Risen Lord that we feast. Only the Risen Body can make such a feast. Here we find true life. Life full and rich. Lasting life that sustains well beyond the grave. Life that gives us empty tombs as well. Therefore as we worship our Resurrected Lord today, let our worship be strong. Let our cheeks grow red with laughter. Let us feast with Joy, for Joy himself has come and joined fellowship. Christ is risen. He is risen indeed.