The Cross: The Father's Response

When Mary of Magdala goes to visit the tomb of Jesus she expects to make a rendezvous with death. It is very early on the first day of the week. It is still dark, but there is light enough to see that the stone has been moved from the entrance to the tomb. Mary’s reaction is not immense relief that Jesus is not dead. She does not cheat herself with that mad, groundless hope. The only conclusion she can come to is that some unknown people must have stolen the dead body of Jesus. Even in death Jesus is not allowed to rest in peace.

  When Simon Peter and the beloved disciple hear Mary’s story they run to the tomb. The account in John’s Gospel is clearly written in favor of the beloved disciple. When Peter enters the tomb, he sees the burial clothes; when the beloved disciple enters the tomb he sees, and he believes. The disciple who was closest to Jesus in love is the one who is first to believe in him as the risen Lord. Perhaps the beloved disciple reckoned that if someone had stolen the body, he would not have taken the trouble to strip the body first and then roll up the burial clothes. Or perhaps the evangelist John is simply telling us that beloved disciples are always the first to get to the heart of the matter. For the heart of the resurrection is the matter of love.

  What we celebrate in the resurrection is God’s liberating love for his beloved Son. Resurrection is the Father’s response to the cross, his defiant answer to a world that hoped violence could keep Jesus in its hold. In raising Jesus from the dead God raised every value that Jesus stood for, every story that Jesus told, every preference that Jesus made, every purpose that Jesus followed. All this was given new life and new significance. 

If death had spoken the final word about Jesus, it would only have been a matter of time before everything about Jesus would have been reduced to a curiosity, a forgettable footnote in the crowded history of lost causes. But God had the last word. As indeed God had the first.

  The resurrection of Jesus was not a hysterical invention of people who refused to accept the death of their master. On the contrary, resurrection is the original act of accepting Jesus’ death. The Father’s act of raising Jesus from the dead is the Father’s way of accepting his Son’s death. Jesus is wakened to new life by the applause of his Father, by the sheer energy of his Father’s love, by the loud shout of his Father’s gratitude. The dead Jesus has no alternative but to rise to the occasion. The tomb can never be his permanent address.

  The Good News is that the Father’s affirmation is not confined to Jesus - it is extended to all who follow the way of the beloved Son. As Paul says in today’s second reading: ‘’When Christ is revealed - and he is your life - you too will be revealed in all your glory with him.’’ In the meantime, however, we struggle to let some of that glory shine through our halting efforts to follow the Lord. We know the way of the cross leads to our own doorstep and that we are challenged to take it. It leads us to the Father’s ultimate affirmation, to the God who will laugh us out of our tombs. Today let us bless the God who insists on having the last laugh!