God is With Us April 16

Prayer

May the hope and peace of the Resurrection be with you and all whom you love this Easter season so that we may live according to the challenge placed before us in the life and model of Christ, our suffering servant leader who conquered sin and death.

God, give us the initiative of Mary of Magdala to wake up early and seek you. Give to us the enthusiasm of Peter to fight through the crowd to find you. Give us abundant obedience in faith like John to see the empty tomb and believe. Give us the will of Jesus to tell the world that you are with us through our actions. Amen.

Study

God is with us: http://www.usccb.org/nab/041606.shtml

Think of how news travels today. Something happens and a reporter finds out through a tip, news release or other source. Maybe a radio or internet report carries the first word. As other media outlets hear, they dispatch their reporters to get the story until sometimes the news-telling becomes a feeding frenzy. The new shows hire experts to help explain events. Then the talk shows take on the story not to mention Leno and Letterman and SNL.

Probably it was a good thing that there wasn’t the equivalent of the modern media in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago.

The last few days have been very hectic. If it happened today, who knows how the media cover could trivialize our salvation story. Maybe CSPAN would have had live coverage of the glorious dinner to honor Jesus when Mary of Magdala anointed him with precious oils. The argument between Judas and Jesus would have been caught on tape and carried live to set off new coverage of the growing conflict.

After this conflict, the reporters would have been watching for further developments and getting background details from Caiaphas and the other high priests. They would be fighting to land that big interview with Mary, Martha or Lazarus or the people who heard Jesus preach in the temple.

Then, on the back of a donkey, as Jesus paraded into Jerusalem victoriously we would get background commentary on Good Morning Jerusalem.

After celebrating Passover and sharing the Seder with the disciples, Jesus’ betrayal was set in final motion. Someone, probably Judas, might tipped off Fox News to be in the Garden of Gethsemane to be ready for live pictures of the arrest of Jesus while his close friends slept. After a hasty trial, Jesus was convicted and sentenced to death. No witnesses. No DNA. No crime scene investigators. No arguments about cameras in the courtroom. No endless appeals to the state and federal courts. No court appointed lawyer. No debate about whether the governor would grant clemency. Just the death penalty carried out swiftly on an innocent man. Geraldo would be disappointed that he could not squeeze the story for higher ratings with endless commentary about the conflicts between the church and this Nazorean.

Jesus was assumed guilty unless proven innocent -- compared to common thief who was released. The eleven remaining disciples scattered and denied knowing him. After being flogged and crowned with thorns by the mocking Roman guards, he marched again, this time to Calvary carrying his cross as the burden for the sins of all mankind – individually and collectively through all time. There Jesus suffered a humiliating death for our sins. End of story. Cameras get put away. All the expert “talking heads” and public officials go home for the weekend.

The mortal body for which Jesus had no more use was removed, not by those closest friends, but by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, secret disciples who had come to believe in Jesus. The body was laid in the tomb and locked away behind a great stone with a few more duties still to perform – to provide the final evidence that Jesus was risen God, to fulfill the scriptures and to be seen by witnesses to the Resurrection.

After the public spectacle, those who knew and love Jesus had hardly had any time to privately grieve over the loss of their friend. It was still dark early the next morning. Again, the disciples slept while Mary Magdalene and some other women, the first witness of the resurrection, approached the tomb and found the stone disturbed and the body missing. Mary ran to awaken the disciples and report the “Good News” – although she did not yet know it was good news that the tomb was empty.

John arrived first and peered inside and hesitated trying to comprehend this private moment – alone at the empty tomb in the first close moment with Christ since the execution. When Simon Peter, the man of action and the swift sword, huffed up behind his swifter friend, he charged through and inspected the empty burial shrouds.

But it was that private moment when John paused – we can almost imagine him kneeling outside the tomb as we genuflect upon entering the sanctuary and passing the Tabernacle. When he saw the tomb was empty, he believed. John had the first post-Resurrection close moment with Christ on seeing the empty tomb. He knew that God alive.

John and the others were our reporters on the scene. They were there and spread the word that has been handed down all the way through time to us. God is with us. Still! Spread the word!

Action

Wake up early tomorrow. Look outside and see the signs of new spring life. Is there any doubt that Christ lives with the beauty around us? Christ lives. Pass it on.