Why are you weeping?

Easter Day

March 31, 2024

Fr. Tim Nunez

May my spoken word be true to God’s written word and bring us all closer to the living word, Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

I’m going to share a couple of stories about death and life that I hope will help us hone in on the wonder of Easter.

Years ago, I saw a fly in our master bathroom. I managed to swat it down, and while it was dazed crush it in a wad of toilet paper and flush it away. The next morning, I saw a fly in our master bathroom. I managed to swat it down, and while it was dazed crush it in a wad of toilet paper and flush it away. And the next morning, I saw a fly in our master bathroom. I managed to swat it down, and while it was dazed crush it in a wad of toilet paper and flush it away.

This went on for weeks, not necessarily every day, but most days for weeks. I don’t know how or why, but there was something about our kids going in and out plus the layout of that house that a fly, not two, would get in and wind up buzzing against our bathroom mirror.

I came to call it The Undead Fly because it kept coming back, like The Mummy. I thought that was funny. But when I told people about it, with that joke at the end, not many but some of them would nod in agreement that it might indeed be the same fly.

Over a year ago, I got tired of a big bush next to our driveway because it grew very fast. I kept having to cut it way back all the time because it interfered with parking for visitors. Plus, it was very spindly and always came back spindly.

So, one day I decided to get rid of it. I cut it all the way down to about two inches above the ground. Then I painted the stump with some brush-killer concentrate. I mean I soaked it. As I said, that was over a year ago.

A couple of months ago, my brother visited and asked me, “What’s that pretty bush with the red flowers next to your driveway? I went out and there it was, covered with red flowers – it’s not a bottle-brush, but the blooms are like that. It was just a couple of feet high, nicely rounded and full. I hadn’t even noticed it. But it was back.

I share those examples to underscore the difference between death and life, and between replacement and revival. Clearly the flies were different flies each time. You crush it and flush it; it’s not coming back. Clearly the bush survived my attempt to kill it. I needed to dig it out. We know that dead means dead.

When we lose someone we love very much, we find that they remain with us in a very real sense. This goes much deeper than mere memory. I’m talking about the people whose love shaped who we are, and those feelings of remembrance and connection are resident in our neurological pathways. That shaping is very real. We adapt but we cannot undo that. We get through it, by God’s grace, but we never really get over it. They are with us; yet they are gone. Dead means dead.

When Mary Magdalene came early on that first Easter morning, she was deeply grieving the death of Jesus. All that the Gospels tell us about her before this moment is that Jesus cast seven demons out of her and that she was among a core group of women who supported Jesus’ ministry, that she was with them at the foot of the cross to watch him die, and that she helped prepare his body and watched him be laid in the tomb.

He saved her life. His love shaped her life in a profound way, new life. Then, she watched him die. She attended to his dead body and she saw him buried. She knew as well as any of us that dead meant dead. When she saw the stone rolled away, she ran – ran – to tell Peter and John that his body had been stolen.

Now her grief is compounded by the missing body, so much so that she’s not able to process the presence of two angels, messengers of God. When they ask, “Woman, why are you weeping?” she is clearly looking for Jesus’s body. She is so distraught she cannot even recognize him when he asks her the same question, and adds “For whom are you looking?” “Just tell me where you have laid him,” she says.

She’s looking for Jesus. There, in that moment, we have a lot to learn from Mary. She is driven by her love for him to find him and care for him even though she thinks he is gone forever. Surely, she has gratitude for what he did for her, but love isn’t transactional that way. She is facing his death out of that love. She could easily dissolve into despair, but love won’t let her. She’s got to find him.

But she’s so distraught that she can’t see through her tears even when he’s right in front of her. She cannot see Jesus until he calls her by name. In that moment everything changes. He was dead. She watched him die. She helped prepare him for burial. She watched him get buried. Now, he is alive. He is not a replacement. He has not somehow revived. He is not a vision or a memory. He is alive. Everything changes; for her, for his disciples and the other witnesses, and the whole history of the world.

When I say everything, I mean every thing. Seeing him alive, resurrected, changes how we understand everything he said and everything he did. He “taught as one with authority.” Yes! His authority is beyond question. Who can argue with his interpretations of scripture and his revelations about himself and the Kingdom of God?

He changes everything we understood about God, about life and about death. We see his suffering and death differently. We are no longer defined by our own suffering and death.

He changes everything we understand about life, our world and our universe, even how we pursue knowledge. Universities grew out of monasteries pursuing truth. Science grew out of the same pursuit.

Hope for eternal life with him.

Hope for healing in this life for the people we love, the people we serve and even ourselves.

Hope to not only endure our suffering but to give thanks and even find joy in it as it draws us closer to him because:

Alleluia, Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed, Alleluia!

Alleluia, Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed, Alleluia!

Alleluia, Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed, Alleluia!

Think of all the ways the world tries to categorize us and often segregate us by age, sex, race, income, nationality, politics and opinions. None of that defines us. Jesus defines us because:

Alleluia, Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed, Alleluia!

Alleluia, Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed, Alleluia!

Alleluia, Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed, Alleluia!

That is the truth we need to tell. In every circumstance, his love and his presence can make all the difference. Don’t be afraid to share it. Let it burn in your heart that Jesus died and rose from the dead. Listen to him, follow him and above all love him because he died for you and:

Alleluia, Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed, Alleluia!

AMEN