In the name of God the Father, Christ Jesus His Son and the Holy Spirit, One True God. Amen.
Christ is risen! Indeed, He is risen!
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus
After a long pilgrimage, where we walked with our Master and Saviour Christ Jesus for a period of 50 days, we have come to the end of our journey. Our Lenten Fast comes to an end with us commemorating the Resurrection of our Master from the grave. One of the well known and favourite hymns of the “Service of the Resurrection of our Lord” of the Indian Orthodox Church is a hymn sung during the Service of the Exaltation of the Cross known as “O Mariyame Njaan Thottakaran Thanne” also known as “Behold O Mary I am the Gardener”. While reading this blog post, please enjoy the wonderful hymn I have added to this post in Malayalam, Syriac, English and Hindi languages. This hymn reflects upon the interaction of Mary with the Resurrected Christ in the garden while searching for the body of her Lord.
The Gospel portion read during the early hours of the morning, which signifies the Resurrection of our Lord is from the Gospel of John 20:1-18. The Gospel account, when read along with the Gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark and Luke, tells us that Mary Magdalene and few other women who were very close to Jesus and His ministry prepared spices and balms to properly embalm the body of Christ which was buried in the tomb on Friday. The women went to the garden where the tomb was located with apprehension as the tomb was closed by a huge stone and the Jewish authorities had placed a guard around the tomb and also they had placed the Roman seal on the tomb. This would mean that they not only faced the difficulty of rolling away the stone, but they would also be facing unknown difficulties when they would face the soldiers.
But when the women reached the tomb, they were met with a sight which astounded them the most, for the stone that covered the tomb had been rolled away. The guards they feared were not to be seen anywhere. And most importantly, the body of Christ which they sought to embalm were not to be found anywhere, but all they found was the empty tomb. They were met with angelic figures informing them that the Christ Whom they sought in the tomb has risen from death and instructed them to go and inform His disciples. The women on hearing the words from the angels ran to the disciples and informed them all that they saw and heard. On hearing their words, Peter and John hurriedly came to the tomb to verify with their own eyes what they had heard and they returned back to the other disciples.
Though we are not told when Mary Magdalene returned to the garden where the tomb was placed or whether she did not accompany the other women to inform the disciples, we only know that she was in the garden and was searching fervently for the body of Christ. It is while she was searching for His body that Jesus appears to her in His resurrected and glorified form and meets her. She was so distraught in not finding her Master’s body that she was unable to recognize Him when He stood before her. She addresses Him as the gardener and requested Him to give the body of Jesus if He had moved it to somewhere else. It is only when He addresses her by name that she understood Who He really was, for He was her “Rabboni” or teacher.
While recollecting these events of this wonderful day, my thoughts are led to another encounter which is mentioned in the first book of the Bible – Genesis. This encounter occurs in another garden – in the garden of Eden. In this garden, we find that it is God Who is looking for man, who has hid himself among the bushes and trees in shame on account of the sin he has committed, for he has disobeyed the one command that God had given him when He placed him in the garden – to not consume the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden. But man, in his greed and desire to become like God, disobeyed Him and hence was hiding from Him.
In that encounter in the garden of Eden, we find man punished for his sin and banished from the garden. We find that man, who enjoyed a constant communion with God, sent away from this communion and to toil on the earth and woman to bear pain. We learn that God not only banished them from His presence, but to deter them from further sinning by consuming the fruit of the Tree of Life, He placed angels on guard with flaming swords.
Let us now reflect upon both these events and try to learn few lessons from them.
Re-establishing communion with God
In the Garden of Eden, man, who was created in the image and likeness of God, on account of the desire created in his heart to become like God, went against the commandment of God. This sin not only led to his death, but also led him to lose the image of God that he had imprinted in him. Man, who used to walk hand in hand in communion with the Almighty God, on account of sin had to cover his shame among the bushes. On account of his sin, the first blameless and mute animal was killed and its skin used to cover the nakedness of man. On account of his sin, angels who marvelled at the communion of man and God were made to stand guard over the garden to prevent man’s entry into the garden.
But Jesus, Who out of His fullness chose to humiliate Himself and become man, and through His obedience to the will of our Heavenly Father to sacrifice His life on the Cross on that fateful day, redeemed and reconciled man back to God. Through His sacrifice on the Cross, man was not only redeemed of his shame of sin but he was also reconciled so that he could stand once again in the presence of God. Through His death and resurrection, the angels who were standing guard at the Garden of Eden, came down to earth inviting man to marvel at the sight of death being defeated and the tomb laid open and bare.
We see a woman, from whom seven demons were driven out by Jesus (Gospel of Mark 16) and who was a devout follower of Jesus during His public ministry, earnestly seeking the body of her beloved Master and Teacher when she did not find it in the tomb. We see a man who having overcome the bondages of demons through her communion with Christ, seeking Christ and wanting to hold on to Him. We see a drastic change in the heart of man, who in the Garden of Eden, forsook God and went far from Him to holding onto Him and drawing closer to Him in the garden of the tomb and coming face to face with God in His glory. We see man who had lost communion with God coming back in communion with Him through meeting the resurrected Christ, not on account of his ability but only through the grace that has been granted to him through the sacrifice of Christ.
A Promise of Eternal Life
When man was created in the image and likeness of God, along with being in communion with God, he was created to enjoy and partake of a life in eternity. But when he sinned, he lost this boon and was punished with death – a separation from God. On account of his sin, man tarnished the image of God created within him and since then man has been striving to regain that image of God that he enjoyed before his fall and an eternal life. All of man’s dreams and efforts are towards attaining the eternal life for which he was created. But all of man’s efforts are in vain, for there is an end to the dream he dreamt of, for he was made from dust and to dust he returns.
But Christ through His resurrection defeated death and He destroyed the gates of Hades which held man back from entering into the presence of God. Christ’s resurrection is the main proclamation of the Christian faith. It forms the heart of the Church’s preaching, worship and spiritual life.
“. . . if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain”
1 Cor 15.14
Christ through His resurrection, not only gave us the promise of an eternal life, but also showed the glorified body that we, who are faithful to Him are granted during our resurrection as well. We will be granted the body that the first man and woman adorned when they walked the Garden of Eden. The image and likeness of God that man first had will be granted back to us. But the Church teaches us that this promise of an eternal life is given to those who live in this world in a God-pleasing, joyous, and fulfilled manner on earth.
Christ’s promise of an eternal life with the Heavenly Father should not fill us with morbid introspection, but rather it should lead us all the more to true repentance of our selves that leads to the fullness of life and joy in Christ.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus, as we begin this season of resurrection and enjoy the presence of our Resurrected Lord amidst us, let us strive towards re-establishing our communion with God and come into His presence daily in our lives. Let us renew our lives so that we may live as Christ lived. Let us repent of our sins and shirk off our worldly selves and turn our gazes and our hearts towards the promise of an eternal life spent in the presence of our Master.
Your brother in Christ Jesus
Jobin George
