What happened on the first Easter? It is hard to know
exactly what occurred when we only have some of the facts. The earliest list of
Easter resurrection appearances is given by the apostle Paul, written down more
than twenty years after Easter and about twenty years before any of the gospels
were written. Paul writes:
“He [Jesus] appeared
to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred
brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen
asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to
one untimely born, he appeared also to me.” (I Corinthians 15:5-8)
This list is significant for what it omits as well as what
it includes. There is no mention of the empty tomb, which plays such an
important role in the gospels. Paul seems to know nothing about the resurrection
appearances to Mary Magdalene at the garden tomb or the two disciples on the
Emmaus Road, which are now the most beloved Easter stories.
Furthermore Paul includes resurrection appearances that are not
recorded in the canonical gospels: singular appearances to Cephas (another name
for Peter) and James (the brother of Jesus and head of the early Jerusalem church).
Most amazing is the mention of group appearances to more than 500 “brothers” at
once (how about “sisters”?) and another appearance to “all the apostles,” which
presumably means the wider group of seventy apostles.
One wonders what those Easter stories were like. It would
have been wonderful to have them included in the New Testament! Some of these
stories can be found in apocryphal and gnostic gospels that never made it past
the ecclesiastical censors to be included in the New Testament. They make for
interesting reading.
What I like the most is that Paul includes his own encounter
with Christ on the Damascus Road as a resurrection appearance. His experience
happened twenty years after Easter and hundreds of miles from Jerusalem. Yet he
is adamant that his experience of the risen Christ was a resurrection
appearance as genuine as those that happened on Easter Sunday, even though it
is clearly a spiritual encounter and not a physical one.
That opens the door for us to meet the risen Christ. It
doesn’t matter that Jesus’ resurrection happened two millennia ago. Our
experiences of the risen Christ are not any less authentic than those of the apostles.
It doesn’t matter that we, like Paul, were “untimely born” – born two thousand
years late.
Easter is not a matter of timing or geography. It is a
matter of spiritual openness to the presence of the living Christ. Christ is
risen! He lives! How do I know? As the Easter hymn says, “You ask me how I know
he lives? He lives within my heart!”
1 comment:
This is my first “lent” season with the awareness of non-duality. I am eager to share newly discovered truths with our children. I’m reading through your posts and books, along with The Heart of Centering Prayer, and some other materials to “prep” myself for introducing this to our kids. Now i realize I may be over thinking it haha. It’s always been about Jesus, I simply have a new lens. Maybe i can help deconstruct some of these new insights for my kids and their peers—a small ripple effect in the “cookies and juice” Sunday school traditions.
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