An Easter Reflection by Fr. Dave Timmerman (Kairos TEC)
A fifth grade class in a Catholic school had planned to perform an Easter pageant for their parish. Each boy and girl in the class had an assigned part. Girls took the roles of Mary, Mary Magdalene, and other women who were at the foot of the cross. The boys took the roles of Peter, Judas, and assorted Roman guards. Then there was Johnny. He was the boy in the class who could never sit still and who always looked at things differently. Well, Johnny insisted that for the Easter pageant, he would be the rock that was rolled in front of the tomb.
Johnny would just roll himself up into a ball and tumble across the stage. At the final performance, his teacher was feeling pretty bad for Johnny, so she suggested that he switch places with the young actor who was playing Peter. Johnny would have none of that.
“Besides Jesus, the stone is the most important role,” Johnny said. “If the stone doesn’t roll away, then nobody gets into the tomb to see that it is empty.”
Johnny may have been a hand full in the classroom, but at that moment he was very astute in his observation on the Easter story. He understood that the stone wasn’t rolled away for the person in the tomb. It was taken away for the benefit of the people outside the tomb. The stone wasn’t moved for Jesus to get out; it was moved in order for us to get in.
Easter is that time when the stones of our lives are moved in order that we might penetrate the mystery of Life and Death. The tomb could not hold Christ, and now, thanks to his resurrection, it cannot hold us either. Throughout these past days of Lent, we have worked with God’s help to alleviate the stones that keep us from experiencing the joy of new life in Christ. Our stones come in all shapes and sizes. The stones that block our view of the resurrection could be fears and weaknesses that paralyze us. They could be loads of anger and guilt that we lug around with us through life. But the good news of this Easter celebration is that Christ showed us how to push those stones away when he rose from the dead.
In order for us to push our stones away, we have to abandon our fear and doubt, just like the first disciples were able to do in the days following Easter. The disciples were afraid after the death of Christ. Many of them went into hiding because they feared the Roman and Jewish authorities. They also felt abandoned by God after watching Christ die the way he did. But what would you expect from mere humans? Doubt is always hanging around, just waiting to step in between us and God. How many people walk away from the Church when things get tough, vowing never to return because they feel God has left them in their need? They have allowed doubt to block their view of God, but remember, God is still there.
In this Easter season, the empty tomb invites us to believe much in the same way the disciples who peered into it came to believe. Let us abandon our fears and our anxieties and let the newly Risen Christ aid us in our efforts to push our stones aside and peer inside the empty tomb and believe.
