After His resurrection from the dead, when Jesus asked his disciples to meet him in Galilee (see Matthew 28 below), Jesus was indeed calling them to imagine something different for the world. Jesus was asking them to imagine a world where life, not death, is centered. The Resurrected Jesus resurrected His disciples by inviting them away from the despair of death that was the cross, into the hope of new life that was the resurrection. A community that had given up on the possibilities for life, that had lost faith in the gospel that Jesus preached, was called back into life-giving ministry. This is what the invitation to Galilee was all about.
When I remember this Galilean invitation, I cannot help but think of the horror at the carnage and human destruction in Ukraine, as if I am being invited to Galilee to meet the resurrected Jesus. I watch what seems like a sea of people hoping for a signal of transcendence pointing them to the resurrecting hope that has disrupted the seeming futility of so many innocent dying from an unprovoked war in Europe.
Standing with my face in the TV each day what I see is the most disabled and diverse crew of God’s sacred creation that I had seen come together in mass exodus from what they knew as life, chased my guided missiles that strike with no heart, with no love. They reflect an “otherwise way of being in the world.” Without seeing the Lord in all of this they are advocating, each in their own way, for a world that looks more like God’s just future: a future where all people are living in peace that is justice. They are embodying that very future.
For them as well as for the women and men who witnessed the crucifixion of Jesus, you can say that resurrection has not begun — just Good Friday — even though the resurrection HAS happened. They are part of something rare, something deadly, something utterly and unnecessarily destructive and hateful. Something sinful! Where is their hope? Where can they find love, not weapons? Where can they hear shouts a joyful promise of life and peace, not angry bombs of hostility and death. Theirs is a life of outstretched hands, grasping for fleeting dreams again, death and destruction emerging in the present, rising up among them and within them. For the Ukraines and for those who witnessed Jesus’ crucifixion, life is so different from what they expected — so much worse than ever imagined.
Easter resurrection is their only hope of what it means to be alive, truly alive. This now is what it means to be en route, walking the road to a new and better day. Let’s tell the others: the Lord is risen! That is our only hope!
Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner.
From the Bible:
“Then Jesus said to ‘Mary Magdalene and the other Mary’, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers and sisters to go to Galilee; there they will see me” Matthew 28:10.
“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope” Jeremiah 29:11.
"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope” Romans 15:13.
“And now, O Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in you” Psalm 39:7.
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