Easter Day, Year B
April 16, 2006
Christ Church, Covington
“’Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?’”
(Mark 16:3).
In the world of C.S. Lewis’ “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe”, the land of
Narnia is locked in an endless winter, under the spell of the evil White Witch.
In Narnia, it is “always winter and never Christmas”, until the spell is broken
by Aslan, the great lion who is the true ruler of Narnia. When Aslan arrives
after a long absence, the snow and ice begin to melt, and spring returns. In the
film there is a chase sequence over a frozen river, a pursuit by wolves and
escape as the ice begins to crack and break. In the world of Narnia, with that
cracking and breaking, things begin to change.
Lewis’ story harkens back to our corporate memory of an earlier and colder
world, to what we might call “ the ice age”. Lewis is echoing such diverse stuff
as modern earth science, peering into the planet’s past, as well as the Greek
myth of Persephone. In “the ice age”, everything is dead until the spell is
broken; there is potential for new life, but it lies dormant until revived by
the coming of spring. In the “ice age”, life is hidden away, hard to see,
tenuous and obscure. Yet it’s there, in a mysterious way, waiting for the right
key to unlock it.
When Jesus is in the tomb, he is truly dead and buried, with no pretense and no
crossed fingers. Yet in the same way as in the world of “the ice age”, there is
potential for something new to happen. There is the potential for renewal,
rebirth, for what we Christians call “resurrection life”. What is hidden, hard
to see, tenuous and obscure, is still present, and possible, if the spell can be
broken.
Today, Jesus’ disciples, the women, go to the tomb, knowing that the Lord is
dead, expecting no renewal or rebirth. It is the winter, the dead season, of
their hope. But what they find unexpectedly, unfreezes their hearts. The stone
that sealed the tomb has been rolled away. Life is present and possible once
again. The spell is broken. The door is unlocked, and standing open. Jesus
Christ has been raised from the dead.
The truth for us is that we are in the tomb, in the grip of death, until God
removes the stone and sets us free. It is for us that Christ has suffered these
things, and been raised again to new life. We are the ones who have been locked
in, under the spell of sin, frozen in the bitter winter of circumstance and our
own action. We’ve been visited by death. Some of us have wondered whether the
spring could ever come, whether the stone could ever be moved. And unexpectedly,
very early in the morning, we discover that God has acted. Life is present, and
possible.
“’Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?’”. The
answer, of course, is that God does this. He’s unlocked the door, and it’s
standing open. We’re peering out of the tomb, looking around, seeing that the
ice is breaking and the snow is melting. There are new possibilities around us:
for healing, for forgiveness, for new life. It’s time for us to live. God has
raised us up, and will raise us up, from sin and shame, from suffering and fear,
from disaster and death. Some of us will need to be coaxed out of our tombs, but
never mind. Something new has happened; God has acted; Jesus Christ has been
raised.
John Bauerschmidt is Rector of Christ Church, Covington.
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