THE TOMB IS A TUNNEL !
27 March 2016 -- Easter Sunday
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed!
Two weeks ago, I was trekking through several tunnels. I was
with a group of you, fifteen Cathedral parishioners, on a spiritual pilgrimage
to Israel and Jerusalem. A special feature of this year’s pilgrimage was
tunnels. We walked in a lot of tunnels, tunnels that had served as water
supplies, escape routes, and attack routes – but also tunnels that were modern
archaeologicial digs.
We walked through walls of sheer rock, and along long
stretches of limestone, deep in the underground of Jerusalem, below bedrock in
some places. We walked through some tunnels that had been hewn out by hand
tools of the Canaanites. Other tunnels were constructed by Hezekiah and various
Hebrew kings. Still others were the result of archaeology, present explorations
into our past.
Our footing was precarious and uncertain. We stumbled along
rocky ridges and unexpected slopes. Often the rock beneath our feet was wet,
always slippery, and sometimes full of water puddles. Underground, we rarely
knew exactly where we were. We could not hear the world above us, and our tunnels
made unexpected turns and dives.
I am telling you all this, I am describing those rocky
tunnels to you on Easter morning, because being in those tunnels felt like
being in a rocky tomb. Walking deep in those Jerusalem tunnels felt like I was
walking in a tomb. The walls were tight and dark, and I had no idea where I
was.
I wonder if Jesus felt like that, when he was in a tomb,
when he was in a tomb for three days. In Jerusalem, we visited some actual
tombs, and some reproductions of tombs, and though they differed from each other,
most were simply rocky caves, carved from the Israel limestone. All were dark
and rocky. One rock may have been the actual rock where Jesus rested his head
for three days.
Except I don’t think Jesus lay still for those three days he
was in the tomb. I think he was walking. He was on pilgrimage, seeking and
searching and exploring just like I was when I was in Israel two weeks ago.
There were fifteen of us on that pilgrimage, walking those
tunnels, and I never heard anyone say they were afraid. That amazed me, because
one of us was four years old, and another was seven; and whatever our ages
were, we had every reason to be afraid. But there was something about our
companionship that kept us unafraid. And there was certainly something about
our guide – a modern day Virgil! A Beatrice!—who kept us brave and curious, not
scared and hesitant.
There are some of us here this morning – Easter morning! – there
are some of us here this morning who are walking in similar tunnels. Perhaps
you are in the middle of life’s journey and in a forest dark, and perhaps you
have lost that straight way. Maybe your life seems dark and the way is
incredibly narrow – tight—and you don’t know where you are going.
The rocky tunnel you are in may feel like a tomb. Maybe you
didn’t intentionally choose the tunnel you are in, but rather you fell in
unexpectedly. Maybe you did choose the tunnel you are in, but you can’t figure
out why you did. Maybe the rocky tomb you are in today is one that was created
long ago, or maybe it was only recently discovered.
Whatever the case, that kind of rocky tunnel can feel like
death. One definition of “death” is feeling like you have nowhere to go,
feeling as if the earth itself has closed in around you. Death is feeling like
there is no more path, no more freedom, no more light, nowhere else to go.
Today, Easter, is the opposite of that. Today, Easter, is
the opposite of death. Today, Easter, is a day to remember an amazing thing
about the tomb. The tomb of Jesus is not the end. It NOT the end of the path,
NOT the end of freedom, NOT the the end of light. The tomb of Jesus is not a
rock barrier. The tomb is a tunnel.
The tomb is a tunnel! In Jerusalem two weeks ago, what felt
to me like a tomb was really a tunnel! Yes, it had some scary qualities. It
felt claustrophobic and dark. But it was going somewhere. I, and my fellow
pilgrims, were traveling!
I think Jesus had companions in the tomb. There’s no record of
that, except that we read elsewhere in the Bible that Jesus –in his death—visited
the souls of the dead (1 Peter 4). That is how we get our image that Jesus
descended into hell, into the place of the dead. There, he provided saving companionship
to those who thought their way had ended, to those who thought the rocky walls
meant the end.
No, says Jesus, there is a way out. There is always a way
out. The tomb is not the end! The tomb is a tunnel! There is always a way out,
a way through the darkness and rock.
Two weeks ago, when I finally found the way out, when I
emerged from that ancient Jerusalem tunnel, I was surprised. I had no idea
where I was! First of all, because the sunlight was so bright, I couldn’t see anything
at all. Then, when my eyes did adjust to the light, I could not recognize what
I did see. I knew I was in the holy city of Jerusalem, but where?
So it is when God leads any of us out of the tunnels of our
lives. Most of the time, we do not expect, we can not expect, where we will be
when we get out. Even if we have been praying hard to escape the tunnels of our
lives, praying hard to escape the tomb, we have no idea what this new life of
resurrection will look like.
Often, when we do emerge from the tunnels of our lives, we
don’t recognize the holy land that we are standing on. We emerge in the holy
city, but we don’t know it.
But that is exactly why we call the resurrection something new! It was not the old life that Jesus was resurrected to; it was an entirely new life. It is not the old life we are
resurrected to, it is an entirely new
life! Many of us mistakenly want resurrection to the old life. We think
resurrection magically restores all of the nostalgic great times and places of
our memories.
If we are merely looking for the old to be restored in our
lives, we will be disappointed. We will miss the true resurrection. That is why
Mary, dear Mary Magdalene, who probably knew Jesus as well as any of the other
apostles, dear Mary does not recognize the resurrected Jesus at first. She was
expecting a resurrection of the old.
When Jesus was resurrected, he was new. The land around him was
new. And Jesus made new the people around him, too. This morning, when we
emerge from this church, when we walk out into the world celebrating resurrection,
God wants to raise us to something new; God wants us to live into something
new.
Can we do that? Our tunnels do not lead back to the way we
came in. The tunnels of our lives will always, always, lead us to another place
entirely, a new place, a place that we might not recognize at first.
The tomb is tunnel! Death is a tunnel! To walk the way of
Jesus means that we do not, we cannot, avoid death. We don’t walk around death,
or over death. The way of Jesus is down and through death, through that tunnel
first, and only then out the other side. On that other side, there awaits us a
place that we might not recognize at first; but that’s okay.
At that other side, God shows us liberating light, open
space, bright glory. We call that other side – the other end of the tunnel – we
call it Easter!
Happy Easter, fellow pilgrims, all of us who have walked
with Jesus through the tunnels of life. Happy Easter! “Alleluia! Christ is risen. The Lord is risen
indeed. Alleluia!” And we are risen, too.
AMEN.
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