Empty Tomb: Fulfilling and Re-membering Encounters
Luke 24:1-12
The central
theme of the passage is the discovery of the “empty tomb” by the women who
loved Jesus and followed him all the way from Galilee. They were so pious and
compassionate. They were also heavy hearted as their Lord departed them
prematurely. The violent torture inflicted on their Lord and the horrific death
that he endured had really pained the women very deeply. Now they know that
their Lord is no more and are concerned more about a proper burial they had failed
to accord him as they were not willing to violate the Sabbath Law. Joseph of Arimathea,
being a reputed Jew and extremely religious man, would not have wanted to prolong
with the burial rites on a Friday evening, when the preparatory hours for the
sabbath start. But the women did what they could in their limitations to
comfort themselves and continue in their devotion to their Lord. It is part of
all grieving experiences. An abrupt closure of a loving relationship in which
they continued for long in a meaningful and fulfilling way was not that easy. It
is normal that the women did prefer to explore the possibility of an imaginary
continuation of an already departed life in some ways. They prepared the spices
and ointments on Friday with a plan to visit Jesus’ tomb in a next possible opportunity.
The women
too are seen not violating the sabbath. They waited patiently through the whole
Saturday, the Sabbath day, to do something on Sunday. They got up early in the
morning on Sunday-the first day of the week and went to the tomb with spices
and ointments.
The
gospel tells us about the certain things that the women had found at the tomb and
certain things they did not find as they expected.
They found
the stone rolled away and they did not find the body of Jesus as they expected.
Their embarrassment was intensified by the presence of two heavenly figures in
dazzling clothes. Their dazzling appearance made them bow their faces down to
the ground. The presence of heavenly figures in Luke’s gospel indicates
heaven’s decisive interventions in Jesus’s ministry. We see the presence of
these two heavenly figures at the transfiguration event in 17:24 and ascension
narrative in Acts 1:10. The resurrection is also that momentous occasion where
the heavenly Father of Jesus responds to his vicarious suffering and death by
raising him up from the tomb.
The
narrative also tells us about what they have heard from the heavenly figures at
Jesus’ tomb.
The words
uttered by the heavenly figures become the very foundation of the resurrection
of faith and hope for the women and other disciples, who had almost given up
following Jesus. “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but
has risen. 6 Remember how he told you, while he was still in
Galilee, 7 that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners,
and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.”[1]
Let me pick
up two experiences that the women encountered at the tomb site on Easter day
and make it the basis of our devotion today. Those two experiences are “empty
tomb” and the exhortation of the heavenly figures to “remember.”
Empty tomb fills the discipleship community with hope, meaning and purpose
The encounter
of emptiness needs to be deliberated at many planes. St Paul speaks about this
emptiness and its inverse impact on our life in the letter written to the
Corinthians (1 Cori 15:14). St Paul says, let me paraphrase that verse in the
Bible in the perspective of our devotion today; “If Christ has not been emptied his tomb by his
resurrection our preaching would have been empty, your faith empty.” The empty
tomb is an experience that filled their empty lives with the power of God and
hope. The emptiness at the tomb was an experience that thought of emptied the disciples
and women of all possibilities of life now turns things upside down. In clearer
terms it is nothing but a reversal of emptiness that was scary and destructive
to a feeling of fullness that filled their life with meaning and purpose. The
empty tomb fills the fearful hearts of the disciples, who were closed down to
the world in a cloistered room, were filled with indomitable hope and courage
to go out to the world. We see this feeling of fullness spreading contagiously
along with the preaching of good news about resurrection. The scripture records
about many experiencing this fullness in the course of spread of good news. Not
only Peter’s empty boat was filled with 153 big fish but also his heart with
unfading love for the Lord as he along with the disciples encountered the
resurrected Lord. The resurrected Lord had filled the hate-stricken heart of
Paul with loving passion for God’s kingdom. Resurrection displaces all doubts,
fears and evil from our hearts and displace them with the peace and love of
God.
The empty
tomb on another plane powerfully exposes and empties the places that were presumed
to be full. One such place that was ripped off the self-aggrandizing pride is
the religious establishment in Jerusalem – As the gospels witness to it, it was
very ritualistic and lacked any relevance for the life of its people. Jesus warned this
religious leadership about their emptiness and ineffectiveness many times. “Woe
to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs,
which on the outside look beautiful, but inside they are full of the bones of
the dead and of all kinds of filth (Matthew 27:23).” The religion of Jerusalem was playing
the game of ritualism within the parameters of safety and profit making. It was also promoting mediocre religiosity
that was distasteful for the struggling common folk of Galilee and Judaea. The
spices and ointments represent the dead traditions of that religion. Jesus can’t
wait for the homage of the dead tradition, but he had to resurrect and move
forward to be present in the struggles of the ordinary folk in Galilee as he
had promised. “But after I am raised up, I will go ahead of you to Galilee (Matthew
26:32).” He will continually
be found among the suffering humanity. He will be found in Galilee, the place
of sufferings and brokenness.
Resurrection
re-members the discipleship community
Yes, if you
have to understand the empty tomb you have to also remember his promises to be
present in Galilee among the suffering multitude in Galilee. Yes, the heavenly figures
exhort the women and through them the other disciples to re-member what he had
told you. Remembering is not simply a going back into a linear understanding of
time. As if it is a walk back to reach a point of glory in the past. It is not
all about relishing the forgone good old times. But it is more about a
spiraling forward of our life’s journey with Christ. Taking into serious
consideration the experiences of his presence in our human life situations in
the past. Reading of the gospel and the expositions in a daily manner help us
reenact those experiences in the present. The stories of healing of the blind,
lame, leper, woman with bleeding, exorcism of fears from people all have very
inspirational impact on this spiraling forward experience. An experience where
the memories of close association with Jesus become strong and indelible
reference points for the disciples in their journey forward. It is more about “re-membering”
all the scattered experiences of the community for a new journey with Christ. Those
who are severed from the fellowship are again made members through this act of
re-membering. Resurrection “re-members” the scattered community of disciples.
Resurrection mandates us to gather together all those broken and scattered
experiences of life together to move forward. The remembering is nothing but an
act of holding on to the promises of God revealed in Jesus all through the manifold
crises in life. Jesus foretold about this crisis of scattering we all as faith
communities have to go through, but on the other side his promises of regathering
stands stronger and taller. We see him telling his disciples that the shepherd
will be struck and the sheep will be scattered (Matthew 26:31).
Remembering
God’s presence in the past experiences of life can give us resources for
dealing with the present. Who among hasn’t gone through an experience of
sickness and recovery, who among us hasn’t gone through a road block in life
that drained us of all hope and found new openings to move forward and who
among us has not gone through paralyzing fears that crippled us of all our
abilities and yet found the strength to push our life forward. We know that when
our earthly resources depleted completely it was the plenty of heavenly
resources that we never imagined as useful in our journeys helped us conquer our
crises and fears in life. But we need to remember that the gospels do not
ground our faith on stone or linen shroud but on the presence of risen Lord in
Human experience. Tomb like experiences are a reality in life, the dark scary
experiences of life as the one that we go through these days. But remember that
we are not going to remain here forever. We have to empty these scary days in
our life and move on to walk with the resurrected Jesus. The scattered
community of believers has to re-member around the resurrected one. Remembering
is gathering together of all aspects of being the discipleship community and
more that had got dismembered because of the crucifixion. May the knowledge of
resurrection instill undefeatable hope and strength of life in us. Amen
[1] The Holy Bible: New
Revised Standard Version. (1989). (Lk 24:5–7). Nashville: Thomas
Nelson Publishers.
No comments:
Post a Comment