Jesus returns from the dead and meets his disciples in different places: the garden, the Emmaus Road, the seashore, the Upper Room. He witnesses to them that he is alive, that he is back from the dead with a body.
Jesus isn’t content to send them an email from heaven: HAVING A GREAT TIME! WISH YOU WERE HERE! No. He shows up among them as his own witness.
And he recruits as witnesses those other people with bodies. Jesus wants them to move out and tell everyone who will listen that bodies count….that he’s back from the dead with a body, threatening them with LIFE.
Those who recognize his witness become witnesses themselves. They put their bodies on the line. They become contagious with the forgiveness they’ve caught, carriers of his Resurrection themselves.
For two years now we have seen doctors, nurses, health professionals and paramedics doing just this. They are putting their bodies and their lives on the line for you and me and for Jesus. They have been CARRIERS – CARRIERS of the New Life of the Resurrection.
Just one month ago I spent two weeks at Little Company of Mary Hospital in Torrance, CA when my brother was dying. The pandemic was anything but over at the hospital. Everyone around me who was caring for the sick was a CARRIER – a CARRIER of the New Life of the Resurrection.
That’s what this back-to-life Jesus wants of us: not names on a list, or what has been called “pew potatoes.” Jesus wants us as witnesses. Not airy spirits or pious ghosts, but bodies like his own with wounds to show…..bodies that witness to his Resurrection, threatening the world with LIFE. Jesus wants YOU and ME to threaten this troubled world of ours with LIFE – with the RESURRECTED LIFE of Jesus.
What are YOU doing today to be a witness to New Life and to the Resurrection of Jesus?
THE ONLY EASTER SOME PEOPLE WILL EVER SEE…..IS THE EASTER THEY SEE IN YOU AND ME!
