Alleluia! Christ is risen!
Chris is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Early on the first day of the week,
while it was still dark,
Mary Magdalene came to the tomb
and saw that the stone
had been removed from the tomb.
She’s heartbroken.
She, her people, her friends,
live under the heel
of a global super power.
They’ve been waiting for the Messiah,
God’s chosen and anointed one.
They’re longing for someone
who will overthrow their colonizers
and bring them liberation.
The system is broken,
the deck is stacked against them,
the dice are always loaded,
and they’re desperate for change.
Jesus has entered their lives,
and taught them a new way to live.
Jesus taught
that strength and growth in the life of God’s Reign
come not by power, authority, or even miracle —
but by lowly service.
He’s changed the definition of Messiah,
and he’s made the wrong people mad.
He’s dead:
lynched by the empire as a revolutionary
though he never raised a stone
to fight for his people’s freedom.
He’s dead:
killed by the empire to remind his people
of what their place is.
As Mary Magdalene comes to the tomb
early on the first day of the week
her hopes are dashed.
As the men sit
in the Church of the Locked Door
they fear for their lives.
They supported
this non-violent,
alleged revolutionary.
Mary Magdalene comes
to finish caring for his body —
now that the Passover and Sabbath have passed —
and even his body is gone.
Can things get any worse?
Will they ever get any better?
These questions aren’t limited
to Galileans and Judeans
in the first century.
If you’re not familiar with the idea
of choosing a red pill or a blue pill
please go watch The Matrix this afternoon.
Dylan Gray and Colin Bernatzky say
“In its broadest sense, the phrase ‘red-pilled’
is used to designate an individual
who has developed a right-of-center
oppositional consciousness
against myriad dominant cultural values
that undergird the project of liberal democracy,
particularly with respect to gender and racial equality.”
For those whose lives
seem crushed and beyond hope,
there’s another option:
the black pill.
In her book Black Pill, Elle Reeve
describes the black pill this way:
“The black pill is a dark but gleeful nihilism:
the system is corrupt,
and its collapse is inevitable.
There is no hope.
Times are bad
and they’re going to get worse.
You swallow the black pill
and accept the end is coming….
You start to imagine
what comes after this system fails.
That’s the world you need to prepare for,
not this one.
If the present reality is corrupt and dying,
then you are no longer bound
by its moral and ethical restraints.
You are riding out the collapse of society.
You can do anything…
Taking the black pill
allows you to justify any action:
cruelty, intimidation, violence.
The people you hurt are beneath you,
because they’re still blinded by society’s lies.
If your actions cause more violence and chaos,
that’s good,
because it will help bring about
an end to the corrupt regime.”
“The black pill is a dark but gleeful nihilism:
the system is corrupt,
and its collapse is inevitable.
There is no hope.”
Those who’ve followed Jesus for the last three years
aren’t black pilled,
at least not yet.
Surely some of their contemporaries are:
the tax collectors Jesus eats with
who sell out their own people to get rich
skimming off the top
and working for the empire.
Soldiers who revel in beating
those who are below them.
Even without being black pilled,
all hope seems lost to Mary Magdalene,
Peter, and John.
Mary goes to the tomb,
and it’s empty.
John beats Peter in a foot race —
because they won’t take the word of a woman —
and it’s true:
Jesus’ body
is not in the tomb.
Jesus had told him
that he would be raised from the dead.
The men didn’t know how to believe,
and went back home.
Mary though, in her grief,
stays weeping at the tomb.
She holds out hope,
longing to at least care for the body.
When Jesus calls her name,
she knows the truth:
Alleluia. Christ is risen.
Christ is risen indeed. Alleluia.
Jesus tells her not to cling too closely,
but nevertheless,
he’s back!
Death, where is your sting?
Grave, where is your victory?
Jesus taught
that strength and growth in the life of God’s Reign
come not by power, authority, or even miracle —
but by lowly service.
In giving up of himself
even to the point of death,
God has defeated death
through Jesus’ resurrection!
NT Wright says,
“Death is the last weapon of the tyrant,
and the point of the resurrection,
despite much misunderstanding,
is that death has been defeated.
Resurrection is not the redescription of death;
it is its overthrow and, with that,
the overthrow of those
whose power depends on it.”
Alleluia. Christ is risen.
Christ is risen indeed. Alleluia.
When I read Black Pill earlier this year,
the first thing I thought after reading Reeve’s definition
was “The resurrection is an antidote
to the black pill.”
That’s borne out in the book,
as one of the men she follows
renounces all the horrible things he’s done
and converts to Christianity
because there’s always another chance.
Whether hopeless at the collapse of the American empire,
or hopeless as a colonized people
whose best chance for change
has just been killed,
Jesus’ resurrection
is a message of hope.
This is not the end,
not even death is the end.
Empire depends on controlling death,
but Jesus the Crucified and Resurrected Christ
has defeated death
and brings life to the world.
Christ is risen from the dead,
trampling down death by death
and upon those in the tombs,
bestowing life.
The life he gives to the world,
he gives freely to all.
Through this life that he gives,
we always have hope.
Alleluia, Christ is risen.
Christ is risen indeed. Alleluia.