Easter Sunday Sermon, 2010
The four Gospels in the New Testament do not describe the actual event of the resurrection. Jesus dies, is put to rest, and then women go to see the tomb and it is empty. That time in between the death of Jesus and the arrival of the women, it seems, is left to the imagination. Jon Sobrino, a Jesuit liberation theologian says no, “The Gospel writers did not give free rein to the imagination. To depict Jesus’ resurrection in itself puts faith on a false trail by conceptualizing the resurrection as a return to living under the conditions of our current existence.” To return to our current context, to image a world after the resurrection similar or just a little better than the world we live in today is a horrible lie. It was a matter of fact that the Gospel writers did not depict the resurrection itself, it is a matter of duty, Sobrino says, that they refer us instead, as in today’s Gospel, to something just as important, Jesus’ appearances to the disciples. Today’s Gospel picks u...