The Peace Has Returned

Gospel: John 20: 2-8

The peace of Christmas had been disturbed by the message of persecution yesterday, but today the peace returns in the resurrection of Jesus.  All of this may seem strange in its placement in the Christmas season, but we are quick to forget what Advent had been all about, and we are slow to see what the message of the stable is all about.

In Advent we awaited the coming of the Savior of the world, a title that had been one for the Roman Emperor.  But Jesus, the true Savior of the world, will not save the world through bloodshed and military conquest as Rome does.  Instead, salvation will come about by laying down his own life in place of ours, in showing infinite love to finite creatures so little deserving of the gift.  

Jesus comes through the way of humility: the poverty of the stable, the vulnerability of a baby, the coming to outcasts and foreigners, ministry to the poor and marginalized, the washing of feet, and execution on a cross as a condemned revolutionary.  Even the empty tomb is a humble announcement of victory over death and salvation for all.  This must be our way as well.