Gospel of Matthew 28:5-8:
“.. the angel said to the women: “Do not be afraid! I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he was laid. And go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead. See, he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him. See, I have already told you this.” Then they hurried away from the tomb, seized with fear and great joy, and ran to announce this news to his disciples.”
May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
Alleluia, Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed, alleluia!
Al-Masih qam! Hakkan qam!
Dear sisters and brothers in Christ, on the morning of Palm Sunday, after I had been to church and felt encouraged by the children’s and congregation’s singing of “Hosanna”, I heard the sad news of the massacre of our sisters and brothers in two churches in Egypt. Such news can only be received with tears. The feeling of great joy on our feast day and the deep sorrow over such horror are inseparable – just as inseparable as the great joy and great fear of Mary Magdalene and the other Mary as they ran from the empty tomb.
And I must confess that as I was preparing these Easter greetings for the whole world from Jerusalem, the city of the crucifixion and the resurrection, there was some doubt in my heart. I thought: what message can I bring this year that would be different from previous years? Has the Easter message lost its meaning, unheeded by Christians and others alike? Is it merely a message of idealism, far from the experience people live today? What does the resurrection of Jesus say to us amid the terror, chaos and uncertainty of today’s world?
But then I remembered that the life of faith is not always a guarantee or a certainty. Jesus’ own disciples struggled to understand his teaching and his way to the cross. Peter denied Jesus three times. The guards at the tomb were so frightened that they became like “dead men”. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary ran from the tomb with “fear and great joy”. And on the road to Emmaus the disciples did not recognize the risen Christ until the breaking of the bread.
So there is no shame in admitting that here, in the Middle East, this is a very challenging time to proclaim and to live the Good News of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. The struggles we face are very real and are becoming ever more complex. We have good reason to feel bewildered! And yet – the Easter message comes to us very clearly: Christ is risen! The power of sin and death is defeated! And as the Lord’s angel has promised, the risen Christ goes ahead of us, showing the way in this broken – and often frightening – world.
I think of the story of St. Augustine, who was full of doubt but fervently prayed to God for the gift of faith. As he prayed, he heard a child’s voice saying: “Take it up and read! Take it up and read!” He thought it might be the Lord telling him to read Holy Scripture, so he searched and found the Bible. Then he opened it and read the first verse he saw – from Paul’s Letter to the Romans: “.. clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.” (Rom 13:14) The young Augustine read no further, for there was no need. Later he wrote: “No sooner had I reached the end of the verse than a light of certainty flooded my heart and all the dark shadows of doubt fled away.” (“Confessions”)
Thanks be to God, the risen Christ always comes to us when we are full of doubt and shows us the way of love and light! That is why, even in our confusion and sorrow over the killing of innocent Christians, in prayer we can say: there is no religion that accepts the killing of innocent worshippers who were only seeking the nearness of God. Such acts are not justifiable and are not acceptable in any religion. We are grateful that the great majority of our Muslim friends stand with us, as equal citizens, against such horrors.
Today we face a terrible and bewildering situation in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East. We see images where chemicals steal the breath from children, where cities lie in ruins, and we wonder: “What can we do?” At the same time we see missiles flying and fear what will come next – for Syria and for the whole Middle East.
And again, although we may feel bewildered, because we have seen the risen Christ, we know one thing for certain: Syria needs from no one more weapons, more violence or more mass killings, or more extremism. That creates international tension, strains relations between friends and partners, and we are afraid of what will follow. I urge the world’s leaders to hear Jesus’ words to Peter in the Garden of Gethsemane, after Peter had cut off the ear of the high priest’s servant: “Put your sword back in its place, for all who take up the sword will perish by the sword.”
Violence breeds violence, regardless of whether it is carried out by terrorists or by governments. I appeal to the world’s leaders: instead, bring a peace grounded in justice for Syria, Iraq, Palestine and the whole Middle East. Bring a future for us and for our children.
For us as Christians in the Holy Land, the turmoil in so many neighbouring lands is very frightening today. At the same time, here at home, we are in the fiftieth year under occupation. Many Palestinian Christians ask: “How long, O Lord? When will it end? Where is our place?”
That is why it is important to me to affirm that, even as we sing our joyful “Alleluia” and celebrate our Lord’s victory over death, some fear, confusion and doubt still remain. And again we must remember that we are not alone. These are precisely the same feelings the disciples experienced after Jesus’ resurrection.
When our Lord rose on that resurrection morning, the earth trembled, the angel appeared in a flash of lightning, and the stone rolled away from Jesus’ tomb. It seemed as though the very foundations of earth and heaven had shifted. What we proclaim today as Good News was at that time only bewildering and frightening news! The guards, the women and the disciples were all afraid of what they saw and heard. They were all afraid of what would come next. They wondered what the resurrection meant for their lives.
And yet – this earth-shaking event is what gives us hope today. The power and the rule of sin and death could not overcome the love of God. Yes, they could crucify Jesus. Yes, they could bury Jesus. But they could not bury God’s love for the world!
In their bewilderment, the angel said to those who had gathered at the tomb: “He is not here, he is risen!”
In the bombing – Christ is risen!
In persecution – Christ is risen!
In violence and occupation – Christ is risen!
In poverty and sickness – Christ is risen!
In war – Christ is risen!
In our families, our communities and our churches today – Christ is risen!
This is our hope, and we must hold fast to it. The Easter message is not idealism. Christ’s victory over sin, death and despair is the only hope that has kept Christians steadfast in this land for two thousand years. It is the only hope that has carried the saints of every generation through trials, struggles and persecutions.
And it is the only hope that will carry us today through these bewildering times in the Middle East and throughout the world. The Good News of the resurrection gives Christians clarity and purpose, no matter where they are and whatever the future may bring. Jesus, the Morning Star, goes ahead of us – and the way of Jesus is always the way of peace, justice, grace, healing, reconciliation and respect for the one who is different, a way in which to live together as one people of God.
That is why Palestinian Christians will continue to be steadfast in their land. We will continue to bring the message of the resurrection to those who promote a culture of death. Amid power struggles, political maneuvering and growing extremisms in our world, we will proclaim only a culture of life, of life in abundance, with full dignity for every human being.
As we celebrate our Lord’s victory over death in this 500th year of the Reformation, let us trust that the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ have already set us free through grace. We are not afraid! Despite all the difficulties and upheavals, let us go out from our churches and into the world with the joy of the resurrection, knowing that the risen Christ always goes ahead of us. Let us encourage one another with the two-thousand-year-old Easter greetings from Jerusalem:
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
Al-Masih qam! Hakan qam!
Bishop Dr. Munib A. Younan of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land and President of the Lutheran World Federation
Photo: LWF/Marko Schoeneberg
Bishop Dr. Munib Younan, LWF President, saying a prayer at the 2016 LWF Council in Wittenberg.