8 April 2007                                       
Carolyn L Roberts

The disciples think the first reports of Jesus' resurrection are, as the saying goes, greatly exaggerated. Really, talk about a story! They don't believe the women from their own group - even Mary Magdalene, one of the primary apostles, who is identified in each of the resurrection accounts. Even when they share the story of what happened to them at the tomb, and in Peter's case, go to see for themselves.

Reports of Jesus' resurrection don't stop at the tomb or with the women's witness to the others; that's only prologue. Our  lectionary for today says otherwise, but Luke's  story of the women at the tomb is coupled with the story of the walk to Emmaus, Cleopas and the unnamed other - whom I'll call Miriam - can hardly wait to tell the disciples that the Lord is risen. They virtually race the seven miles back to Jerusalem to report the good news, to tell Peter and the others what happened on the road out of town.

In an old commentary on the gospels, compiled by a Jesuit working among peasants in Solentiname, Nicaragua during the chaos of their revolution, one of the villagers comments that it isn't any big deal for the women to visit the tomb after Jesus' death. But another villager points out that act takes a good deal of love - and courage - like laying flowers on the grave of a Nicaraguan revolutionary in full view of the government's soldiers. The political impact of the women's visit to the tomb isn't lost on the Nicaraguan peasants.

Perhaps it's because we're largely removed from the life of peasants that the political realities of the resurrection almost always are lost on us. Harvey Cox clarifies: to restore a dead person to life strikes a blow at mortality. But to restore a crucified man to life strikes a blow at the system that executes him. Each of the gospels is clear about the collaboration between the Temple authorities and Rome. During Jesus' time, both Rome and the Temple authorities in Jerusalem are bent on maintaining their authority and their power.
Suddenly, like a tightly closed bud in warm sunshine, the story opens. The life and ministry and resurrection of Jesus the Christ tell the full story. The crucifixion and resurrection are not its sum total of the storyBMel Gibson has it wrong. Yes, Jesus' crucifixion was brutal. But without the content of Jesus' life, I am convinced that his death would have held no particular meaning. We can't fast-forward from Jesus' birth to his death, from Christmas to Easter, without his ministry in between. Because it's Jesus' ministry that ushers in God's realm. Jesus' ministry of compassion, of healing, of confronting injustice in church and society, synagogue and Rome, that brings Jesus to the attention of the Temple and to the attention of Rome's henchman, Pontius Pilate.

Our story doesn't begin or end with the resurrection, because to stop even with the resurrection is  NOT the gospel truth. Doesn't matter which version we read. The scandal of our story is embedded with the first to people to hear and bear witness: the womenBa total reversal of all that is traditional. Right there, the hierarchy of the Temple is overturned, symbolized with the message of the resurrection to those tellers of idle tales: women. To those witnesses who do not count in the court of Jewish law: women. Behold, the still-speaking God of creation and the exodus and the prophets is doing a new thing. Women not only are the first witnesses to the resurrection. More than that, women are the first people commissioned to share that witness with the other disciples.

Still Luke doesn't let the story rest. He moves right on to all those who have seen yet one more good Jew executed by Rome...and they are getting out of town. Cleopas and Miriam may be sad and grieving; they may be talking about the events of the week. But they have no expectation that Jesus is once again a living presence among them. Oh, it may have been a possibility a few of their number checked out, but nothing came of it. Rome has done its worst. Again. Hopes are dashed. Again. And given Rome's tendency to crucify first and ask questions later, it's prudent to be heading out of Jerusalem. So they're on the road to Emmaus - a metaphor for Somewhere-else.

But, the story is fresh, and Cleopas and Miriam are compelled to share it. They are compelled to invite the one with whom they share their story and to enjoy the most basic elements of hospitality - companionship and a meal. Then the bread is broken. Bread isn't broken for Peter. Or for the other eleven. Not even for the women at the tomb, but for two people symbolic of all Judea. In Acts, Luke writes that Jesus commissions his followers to be witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. But here's the catch. Cleopas and Miriam not only witness beyond Jerusalem; they also witness to Jerusalem. They carry the message both ways, challenging Jerusalem to be true to the gospel, and not to replicate the hierarchy of the Temple and of Rome.

That simple message: Jesus' resurrection - strikes at the foundations of both the Temple and of Rome. It is a message that strikes at the foundations of privilege and hierarchy. It strikes a blow to the systems that executed Jesus. The message to Jerusalem and the Temple is that the holy is no longer the sole province of the Temple. The message away from Jerusalem, the message to the culture is that even with the might of Rome behind it, death no longer holds the same fearsome power. What a terrifying word to an empire: through the resurrection, victims of the callous and the powerful are vindicated. And if they are vindicated, then they also have worth. That conviction, that Christ's resurrection gives worth and meaning and purpose to all who believe could not be contained. It wasn't contained with Jesus' crucifixion - thought heaven knows Rome and the Temple authorities tried - and it hasn't been contained in any generation since then. It is a message that transformed the world and it is a message that has the power to continue doing so.

Wherever two or three gather in Christ's name, wherever bread broken and the cup is shared in Christ's name, the resurrection takes form. The powers of violence and death and brutality do not have the final word. Thanks be to God!

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