There is a scene in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland where Alice eats a mushroom and grows to enormous proportions. She outgrows her bed and bedroom. She must get on her knees so as not to hit her head on the ceil-ing. Her arms get stretched out the window. She doesn’t fit her world anymore. It’s too small for her.
Silly as it sounds, that image keeps coming to me as we think about the great mystery of Christ’s Resurrection. This world is too small to fit our hope.
Here’s what I mean. We live in a world with limited re-sources. There’s only so much water, clean air, oil, land, food, clothes, money and power. Oh, there’s “enough” for all of us to live, but here’s the problem . . . people being people . . . some of us want more than we need. And that’s okay . . . if we all have enough.
Problems arise when my “wanting more” keeps you from “getting enough”. Humanity seems to be hardwired for conflict. Given limited resources, and the tendency in each of us toward selfishness, the freedom to use power to get more and the human right to have enough are bound to conflict. Who wins? The powerful.
This is where Jesus and the Resurrection come in. You see, Jesus came to show us a new way of living not based on power, a way that has as its foundation a selfless love. We’ve never seen a love quite like what is revealed in Jesus Christ. It is a love that lays down its life for the be-loved, a love that seeks not its own but the happiness of the other, a love that discovers itself by giving itself away, a love that will suffer and endure all things for the sake of the truth.
And that’s what these last three days have been about . . . Jesus pouring himself out for the salvation (read: “the rescuing by love”) of the human race. Jesus died for us. His love is poured out for us “while we were yet sinners.”
And now today, Easter Sunday, God reveals something else – – – this love never dies. Jesus is raised from the dead by the power of God the Father, who is love. We are the heirs of this gift of new life (God’s Life), which means my life’s mission becomes one of loving others as Christ has loved me, which means we are all brothers and sisters in this world and yes . . . there is enough for everyone . . . because you can have some of mine.
That brings us to one final precious resource. Time. There’s not enough. We run out of time. We come to our end. Jesus died. We die.
But . . . as the women at the tomb tell us today, HE IS RISEN! God is not defeated by death. He lives in Eternal Life. And He’s coming to get you and me and poor Alice! Christ wants us to be with him. Why? Because he loves us. Why does He love us? Because that’s how God is.
Please say “yes” to Christ’s love.
Happy Easter.
Fr. Tim
