The Morning After

It’s Monday, like no other Monday on the planet, at least for the disciples of Jesus of Nazareth.  The weekend was brutal, literally.  No “happy hour” on Friday, I’m telling you. 

After the arrest and the trial and the public humiliation and violent death of their leader?  No, they scattered and hid out in their homes, trying to avoid being seen, associated, recognized.  They were afraid, of course, of what might happen to them.  If the authorities had aimed to make Jesus of Nazareth “an example,” then it worked.  The mourning women, the wailing women, “silly women” – they were of no consequence; everyone would just roll their eyes and leave them be, whether they were “disciples” or not.  But there was so much at stake for the eleven guys.  So lay low Friday … Saturday … Sunday … for as long as it took for the whole scandal to pass, for the whole nightmare to be over, for life to return to normal.

But it never did, did it? 

One of those “silly women” burst into the upper room like a bright light exploding in the dark!  Her words were impossible to comprehend – “Christ is Risen!  He has Risen, Indeed!  I have seen the Lord with my own eyes!  And he is coming to you, my brothers!  You will see him too!”  Can you see their faces, the confusion, the denial, perhaps even a bit of anger directed to the bearer of that news?  As the story goes, a couple of them fact-checked her story, finding the tomb empty, returning home to contemplate what this might mean, to roll the woman’s declaration around in their minds, rolling it off of their tongues in different ways.  Christ is RISEN.  Christ IS risen. CHRIST is risen.

What if, by speaking those words, by rolling THAT reality around in their minds (as opposed to all the fear and anxiety), everything began to change for them?  What if, because they experienced that … alternative reality, their lives were changed so that “all fear (was) gone?”  What if – and this actually came to pass – choosing to believe and give their lives to THAT reality (as opposed to avoiding the hatred of the authorities) they suddenly felt strength and courage they had never felt before?  

And what if we disciples of Christ did the same?

We will never be the same again.  What if we chose how and who we will be from now on?