Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her. John 20:18

Recently, I read a powerful story in a sermon, actually it was poem. It was recited by a survivor of the Holocaust at the Nuremberg war-crime trials. It relates the story of a group Jewish individuals hiding in a cemetery and a woman gave birth to a son there. An elderly gravedigger wrapped the infant with some dirty clothes and prayed, “Great God, hast Thou finally sent the Messiah to us? For who else than the Messiah Himself can be born in a grave?” After three days he saw the child nursing on the mother’s tears because she could no longer produce milk. *

You might be wondering why I am sharing such a tragic tale on Easter Sunday. The occasion calls for something joyous and this story seems hopeless and tragic. Well, there are several reasons for it. The main one is that Easter is a story that is born in a grave. Many of us forget what this means. I think that the above story is a good reminder.

I was also deeply impressed by the faith of the gravedigger. Despite his dire circumstances, he was able to see hope in a child born into a hopeless situation. Some might say that it is wishful thinking of a desperate person in a disheartening situation. It goes beyond wishful thinking to see a child like this as Messiah, if anything, it shows profound understanding of his reality. There are many who succumb to wishful thinking in this world; those who put their faith in humanity to resolve the problems many times they themselves have created. It is wishful thinking to think people completely alienated from pain and suffering are going to bring a kind and viable solution to the healing of those who suffer in a manner that affects their whole being; it is wishful thinking to believe all our “isms” have the solution of life’s problems. These are the wishful thinkers. The gravedigger was a realist. He knew a true Messiah must come from the grave, a place of hopelessness and despair because this is how we know that He understands the plight of humanity.

It is not surprise that the beginning of our faith begins in a tomb where death always had the final word. There were a series of events that led the women to the grave. Many bypass these events. Good Friday is not known as a day where the churches are packed. We have Christians whom we call “Christmas and Easter” Christians. Not many Good Friday ones. Most of them avoid this day. I heard people say that it is too sad. In Brazil, most Protestant churches do not have any services or reflections on Good Friday. They claim that they are all about the Resurrection. Unfortunately, one cannot understand the latter without experiencing the former. For the Easter Christians, the Resurrection only serves as a hope to be read at their funerals. Whereas when the women went to the tomb, they met the Resurrected Christ who brought Life to a place of death. They saw the words of Jesus fulfilled in the here and now when He said that the gates of hell (or hades which means place of the dead) shall not prevail against it.

The woman would have appreciated how the gravedigger felt when he saw the life of the child slowly languish. His hope must have been crushed. The women experienced the same thing at the Cross. The man whom they deeply loved was brutally taken away from them. He was reduced to a memory that would have died with them. They went to the tomb not expecting anything. They wanted to show their final act of love and devotion by giving Jesus a proper burial. One can’t imagine the pain and suffering they must have felt as they went to the tomb. The disciples could not bear it. They stayed away. These women were compelled by great love.

“We love Him because He first loved us.” 1 John 4:19

They responded to the love they received and it opened their eyes to see the Resurrected Christ. Many must have passed by the tomb. There were guards. None of these saw Him. Only those who sensed His love in their hearts were able to see Him.

On Good Friday, I read the Passion with Felipe. I wasn’t sure how it was going to pan out at first. He has never read the Passion before and it’s an extremely long reading. He was deeply moved by the end of it. I asked him what he thought about the suffering of Jesus. He said, “He suffered like most of us in the streets. It brings Jesus closer to us.” It makes God more all encompassing, I added.
I shared with him a conversation I had with a certain young man. He thought that it was virtually impossible for someone to have genuine Christian faith in the streets. His reasoning was that there were lots of temptations and drugs involved. In other words, Christianity is only relevant in certain circumstances, according to this man who is a Christian. I asked Felipe what he thought about this. He replied without much hesitation that it was easier to see the presence of God in the streets. Almost everyone in the streets is aware that they survive by the grace of God. He went further and stated that everything they received in the streets was because of God. However, the most important factor for Felipe was not the material providence, but the conviction in their hearts that God is constantly with them regardless of what happens to them.

At this moment, I understood why the poem about the gravedigger spoke to my soul. I am surrounded by people like him in the streets. Our children and teens share his spirituality. They are able to see beyond their dire situation. They have been abused and neglected in their homes. In the streets, they are faced with constant disdain and violence at the hands of authorities. They have every reason to believe that God has abandoned them. The streets is very much like a living cemetery. The children and teens escape to this place because they know no one will come looking for them there. It is the final stop before death for them. Even so, it is the place where they discover hope for life. The Resurrected Christ always comes forth from the place of death.

This hope is not to be confused with hope for a better material life. Nor is it a hope that maybe one day they will have a home. Felipe never imagined that he would have a family nor a home. He once believed that he was going to homeless for the rest of his life. Nonetheless when we met him in his mid teens, he was one of the youths with the strongest faith. He had hope for Life. If someone asked him or the other youths to explain this hope, they would be at a loss. It goes beyond any worldly concept. They can’t express it in words.

The women at the empty tomb could not explain it as well. All they could do was to testify that Jesus has risen. They went to the tomb thinking all was lost and then they found something new. It wasn’t going to restore life as it was before. It transformed everything. It brought them from the state of sorrow to one of perplexity. There was something new for them in the here and now. There was a new way of living their lives. The Resurrection was not about the afterlife for these women. It would have been if they saw a ghost. They saw Jesus in flesh and blood. He was alive. It changed everything but they could not really tell what has changed. The best thing they could do was to share with the others.

The women went to the disciples to share with them what they saw. It was the only thing they could do and it is only thing anyone could do. The Resurrection is not an argument we can convince someone of nor it is something we can prove empirically. The Resurrected Christ is someone we have to meet. The best we can do is to follow the example of these women and share our encounter with Him. The disciples were given a chance to go back to the tomb but not to look for the dead. They took their eyes from the situation and looked to the new possibilities that the Resurrection has afforded to them. Now, we can boldly go to the cemeteries of this world and hope to meet the Resurrected Christ. He always rises out of situations and circumstances where death and despair reigns. He has overcome them. He has risen to invite us to be part of something new and different in this life, in this reality. He has risen for this Life.

*This story is found in a sermon by Paul Tillich called, “Born in the Grave.”