I Imagine.... I Imagine It Went Like This Uncategorized Love

I IMAGINE….

I imagine it went something like this-

Sometime, about 2000 years ago, probably just before the sun broke the horizon, two women went to the tomb where they put the rabbi. The two women were friends of his. The term ‘friends’ is a dramatic underselling of what he meant to them. They were going to prepare the body for its final burial from its murder three days before. But they knew-the three-day rule. Sunday-it was the third day. They had to see for themselves.

It is interesting the women went. What would I have done if I was one of the ‘Big Twelve?’ I would like to think I would have done better. All of it. I want to say while beating my chest ‘not me, I’m with ya Jesus.’ One of them did say that and he was politely rebuffed. Frankly, I think I would have still been curled up in a corner with a blanket over my head. I would like to think I would waive to the two Mary’s with a smile and merely say ‘Go if you want to, but he ain’t there.’ I would have said it with a smirk, like some guy who knew something. Or another way of thinking of it, some guy who forgot everything.

…maybe my last three years following this guy….

But I wouldn’t have. The idea of maybe my last three years following this guy was a sham and now I was probably going to follow his fate, scourged and hung on a post would be a little unsettling. But to see their faces when they came back saying not only was the tomb empty, but the guy inside spoke to them and said to come back and tell the others-I would have said they were crazy, but it was their eyes. They had a look in their eyes that shook me to the core-‘holy god this crap is true,’ I would have said, using language not yet invented.

They never found his body as some believe, maybe he lived and snuck away-maybe even with one of the Mary’s. Lived in Peru, had kids, ran a taco bar.

Or-

Maybe it was all true. Maybe everything you did in your past, felt guilty about, didn’t feel guilty about, or that crap in the future you WILL do, all those evils that contaminate you-maybe they were paid for with one act of love. All you have to do is-nothing. It’s not about you. And yet, it is all about you-and me. Just believe in the gift-take it-it will change you. You lose nothing, except your former identity and gain, well, the Kingdom of God. You just have to believe and accept the act of the son of the God of the Universe paid for you-his last thought as he wrote the check was seeing your face.

Don’t believe that kind of love exists? Ask a Medal of Honor winner why they did what they did. Inevitably they will use the word ‘love.’ Yeah, that’s pretty huge. Don’t try to figure it out. That’s called ‘faith.’

Today, I will go….

Today, Easter Sunday, I will go to my church. We do not pride ourselves on fine clothes, we barely find shorts and flip flops to wear, and don’t even ask about underwear, but on Sunday morning, this Sunday morning, I break out the suit and heavy starched shirt and maybe a Jerry Garcia tie.

“After all-”

I tell my pastor who has heard the line for years and prompting me in our little skit only he and I know about-‘So, Mark, why the suit?

“-well, the man did rise from the dead.”