BORROWED TIME TO BORROWED TOMB

EASTER SUNDAY 2019

Alleluia! Christ is Risen! The Lord is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!
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What a week?

We rode with Jesus into Jerusalem, waving palm branches and shouting Hosanna! Hosanna! SAVE US! You are the promised King! The Messiah! Save us! Save us! As he did not bring military might but rather showed us a way of love in remembrance of God and service to each other we had the realization that this salvation did not fit into our molds. So we turned on him. Handed him over to Pilate. Called for his crucifixion! And followed him out of town to the wood of the cross.

After he died at the place of the skull his body was taken down laid on the lap of his mother, who opened her heart and offered him to all of us. Two faithful members of the council Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea saved his body from being thrown into the garbage heap. Nicodemus brings one hundred pounds of oils and spices to anoint the body and Joseph gives up what was meant to be his tomb. So great was there love for this Rabbi that they went to extraordinary lengths making an extraordinary financial and physical sacrifice to care for his body. Perhaps they didn’t quite understand resurrection yet either. After all, Nicodemus is still reeling over the idea of being BORN AGAIN. Anyway, Jesus body is placed in the tomb of another. The stone is rolled over the door to protect it from wild animals and to mask the smell of decomposition. Then Jesus is left alone

So now we come to the in-between. the moment of tension between death and resurrection. The part often skipped in our Easter celebrations. For that part of our story, I offer you this Icon of the Anastasis (meaning - the raising) It is also often called The Harrowing of Hades or The Conquering of Death.

As with all icons, there are many aspects and lessons they try to teach us through the metaphor. First, we are drawn to the figure of Jesus. He is dressed in dazzling white and often surrounded by a mondorla of light representing the Glory of God. This part of the image should draw our memories back to the scene on Mt Tabor, where Christ is transfigured to his Glory in front of Peter, James, and John. Beneath his feet are the Gates of Death itself. They do not look like normal gates because they have been broken by Christ. Death can no longer contain creation forever. As fourth-century Spanish poet Prudentius painted the scene,  “The door [of hell] is forced and yields before Him;  the bolts are torn away;  down falls the pivot broken; that gate so ready to receive the inrush,  so unyielding in face of those that would return,  is unbarred and gives back the dead. . .”

On either side of Jesus are those who have died. The crowd surrounding Christ seems mostly unfamiliar in iconography besides John the Baptist with his memorable camel hair tunic. These others are the righteous of the the passed. Those who have given us our heritage.

 In the most basic icons, on Christ’s right hand we see Christ’s family including John the Baptist, as well as King David and King Solomon with their crowns. on Christ’s left-hand we see those who prefigured him:  Abel (the firstborn human, who was slain by his brother Cain, and was thereby the first human dead), along with the prophets from the Transfiguration, Moses, and Isaiah. They have all been awakened from their long slumber, likely at the sound of those gates crashing down. They now stand ready for what is to come, the hope the prophets promised for generations.

Underneath the gates of Hades,  which have been broken and now lie in the form of a cross,  we find a figure that is tied up in the dark area where the keys and locks are found;  this represents Death,  being bound up he no longer has dominion over us.

Lastly, our gaze is drawn to the two figures below. They are a much older man and woman. They have been lying in stone boxes these are their sarcophagi.  The two figures are Adam the ‘adam or dust and Eve the ‘chava or life giver Together they are the dust given life the first of humanity. They have been so long in their shame that they are almost reluctant to leave death. Therefore Christ is literally yanking them from the tomb.  Often you will see Eve’s hand covered, the hand, so the story goes, with which she plucked the forbidden fruit.

In the totality of this image we see that Christ as taken control of the grave. Not only his grave but all graves. Death for Jesus was only a borrowing of time. And Jesus burial is only in a borrowed tomb. Because Christ has conquered death and brought the Resurrection. As with Joseph’s tomb, Jesus makes all our graves his own.

The three women with their spices were the first to witness this fulfillment. And in their joy, they do not keep this news to themselves. We are the inheritors of this Gospel, the GOOD NEWS. Christ has made our graves his own. Christ has conquered death, therefore we need not fear death. So go and tell your sisters and brothers, the tomb is empty. Tell the world that it is life, not death, which will come to us all. ALLELUIA!