4/13
Easter Monday
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| Ann egg for West Park |
A cold, wet, blustery day. Try to get up and go out but for the first time since March 4th I miss my walk.
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Just one week after his mother died, my friend Jim’s father died. This coronavirus is merciless.
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Spend most of the day preparing for the West Park Bible Study, tonight Matthew’s Easter story. (Matthew 28: 1-10). I chose Matthew over John, mainly because of the weirdness of Matthew’s telling. Elements that we often forget when we think of the combined Easter narrative we carry in our heads. What is unique in Matthew?
* Who’s there? Mary Magdalene and “the other Mary.” Who? Mother of “James and Joseph” and “the sons of Zebedee.” But in 4: 21, they are “James and John.” In 13:55, when Jesus is rejected by his hometown, “Is not his mother Mary? …are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas?” So is this his mother? Wouldn’t Matthew have said so? It’s not clear. What difference does it make? Sidenote: in classic Matthew style, note Jesus had a brother with the same name as the one who betrays him, Judas.
* Earthquakes. Only in this gospel. Nowhere else. Back in 27:50, when Jesus dies, the “…earth shook and rocks split,” the “temple curtain is rent.” Why? This is the veil that hangs at the access to the ‘Most Holy Place” or “Holy of Holies.”,(Exodus 26: 31-55). As if to say, with Jesus' death, God is no longer hidden. Access is opened to all.
- “Tombs were opened..” Foreshadowing the general resurrection. “Saints” are raised. “Saints” being the nominative form of the Latin “sancti,” holy, like sanctified and sanctuary. It’s the term Paul uses for all Christians (Rev. 15:26, 1 Cor.1:2) For Paul, all believers are saints. But coming out of graves? Nowhere else does this happen. This would seem to draw some attention. No one else mentions this. Matthew, who has as a major agenda linking his narrative with the narrative of the children of Israel, seems to be connecting his story with the prophet Ezekiel and the story of the “dry bones.” In Ezekiel 37:12, “I will…open your graves, bring you up form your graves, O my people, and I will bring you back to the land of Israel…I will put my spirit in you and you shall live..” Ezekiel is addressing a spiritually dead people, in exile coming back to life. Perhaps Matthew is telling us that Jesus death will shake us back into life….
- These earthquakes give the story an apocalyptic edge, as in Revelation, Exodus and 1 Kings.
* Heavy stuff is happening here and no one is noticing. Is heavy stuff going on around us and we are not noticing?
* An angel come down form heaven dressed in white to roll away the stone in front of their eyes. In every other gospel, the stone is already rolled away when they get there.
-White like the robes of the holy in Revelation 19.
who’s that yonder desk in white
must be the children of the Israleite
pharaoh’s army got drowned
oh Mary don’t you weep.
“ Oh Mary don ’t you weep”
- the angel says “Do not be afraid”
like God to Abram (Genesis 15:1), angel Gabriel to Mary (Luke 1:30)
* Jesus had told them that he must “..go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering..and be killed and on the 3rd day be raised…” (Matt. 16:21)
* Two women are the first witnesses. Jesus doesn’t need the stone rolled away, he’s already out. He appears them out of nowhere. And they recognize him. Not like John where Mary mistakes him for the gardener.
- why were they the witnesses? All the men and run away. As Marsha says, the women are the ones tt take care of business. They always do.
* They “worshipped him”
-Like the Magi (2:2). and the disciples in the boat after he walked on water (14:33)
Maybe in corona virusworld , we need the Jesus who says to Mary, do not hold on to me..” (John 20:17)
* He’s going ahead of you to Galilee. Why?
-predicted at Last Supper “But after I am raised I will ahead of you to Galilee…” (Matt. 26:32). Why? Marsha points out that this was the home of Jesus' ministry. For Russ, it's away from the seat of Empire power and into the midst of the common people. The purpose is mission, to make disciples, followers to teach "what I have taught. Obey my commandments."It’s a way of life, not agreeing to a theological proposition. It is doing as Jesus, following Jesus, not believing per se.
* ‘Lo I am with you to the end of the age” That’s the bottom line. As Marsha, says, the comfort we need.
So, to summarize, for Matthew:
1. It’s an apocalyptic event.
2. There is now open access to God
3. People are being brought back to life again
4. The purpose is mission.
And in April 2020, where are we?
* We are still the in between time
* Our graves have nor been opened. The stone has not bene rolled away.
* We are being asked to celebrate what we have not yet experienced.
We have ben asleep. The Covid 19 Virus is like the earthquake waking us up.
Our being shut up and shut in could have the key to our going out from our exile, our graves.
We are to follow Jesus, not dependent on theological propositions. How we behave in the “in between days” is critical to creating what we can be on the other side.
Lo I am with you to the end of the age.
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Leading up to Wednesday’s celebration of Jackie Robinson’s historic breaking baseball’s color line, has 1945 team, the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro League.
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| Jackie 1945 |
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