A Real Presence

Gospel: Luke 24: 13-35

Two disciples are on the road to Emmaus.  They encounter Jesus along the way, but initially they do not recognize him.  They tell him about all that has happened in the last few days regarding the death of Jesus and then the empty tomb.  Jesus then takes them through the scriptures, connecting them to his life, death, and rising, and yet they still do not recognize him, even though later they will recall how their hearts were burning within them.  

They then stop to rest along the way and share a meal.  When Jesus breaks the bread it is then that they come to recognize him, but he vanishes from their sight.  The Lord is only fully revealed and known to us in actions, not in words alone.  The words stirred their hearts along the way; the action of sharing the meal together fully revealed Jesus to them.  It was the action that brought together everything else into a real presence for them in the world.

The same is true in our own lives.  We can talk all we want about Jesus.  We can read the scriptures and all sorts of other things about him.  But Jesus does not become real in the world until we break bread with others, i.e. when we engage in actions of love and mercy directly with others.  Only then does the presence of Jesus in the world become real, only then does the resurrection of Jesus have any meaning in people's lives.  The faith of Jesus is not an abstraction; it is a lived reality. 

The Gardener

Gospel: John 20: 11-18

There are multiple ironies in Mary Magdalene mistaking Jesus for the gardener in this Gospel story.  John has situated us back in Eden: the cross as the tree of life; a man and woman at the tree; two streams; and the garden itself.  John imagines the death and resurrection of Jesus as events that return us to our original condition in Eden prior to the fall of our first parents.  It is only fitting that Mary Magdalene finds the Lord here in this place.

Jesus is in fact the gardener in two senses.  First, as the one present in the beginning of creation in John's understanding of him Jesus is present at the creation of the garden of Eden.  Second, this original garden was given to Adam as the first gardener.  Jesus as the new Adam becomes the one who has restored the garden to its original state, the one who will continue to oversee the restored garden going forward so that it will continue to bear good fruit.

Mary Magdalene, for her part, is the new Eve who receives this new fruit as Eve had done, and like Eve will bring this fruit to others.  She is the first to receive and share this new garden.  She becomes the model for us both in receiving this new fruit and in sharing it with others.  We become workers in the vineyard of the master gardener, the Lord Jesus, who has restored us to our original dignity and blessed us with abundant fruit to share with others. 

Fearful Yet Overjoyed

Gospel: Matthew 28: 8-15

The women have some fear at accepting this mission to tell the men about the resurrection of Jesus, and for good reason.  They know that the men won't believe them.  Throughout the Gospels the men have not believed angels about the coming of John the Baptist and Jesus.  They have not believed women about those things either.  The men have not even believed Jesus when he spoke about his impending death and resurrection.  The women know for certain that they will not be believed.

The men will likely be indignant as well.  How could the women be the first to encounter the risen Jesus? How can they be entrusted with passing on this message to others? From that time on the menfolk have made sure the women would be silenced, and that Mary Magdalene's personage would be maligned later in history by the menfolk.  The women have plenty of reasons to have fear at receiving this mission and carrying it out.  

Yet despite the fear, the women proceed with the mission, given added encouragement from the Lord who appears to them to reassure them.  The Lord himself knows the men will not believe the women; they did not believe him!  We too are sent into an unbelieving world to live a life of joy and hope because the Lord is risen.  We too may have both joy and fear, but know we also have the encouragement from the Lord to go ahead anyway, that his presence is with us, and that it is enough.