The Sánchez Archives EASTER SUNDAY Year B

By
Patricia Datchuck Sánchez

In the Third Day

ACTS 10:34, 37-43
COLOSSIANS 3:1-4, CORINTHIANS 5:6-8
JOHN 20:1-9

For centuries, Christians have included in their credal formulae the statement that Jesus rose from the dead on the third day. More than a specification as regards the actual chronological moment of Jesus rising, Bruce Vawter explained that the notion of the third day probably reflect an early resurrection theology “that looked backward from the resurrection as the means of interpreting a life and death that had recently been experienced and were otherwise ambiguous” (This Man Jesus, Image Books, New York: 1975). But, before this phrase took on significance for believers in Jesus, on the third day had a long and well established history.

In the Hebrew scriptures, the third day was traditionally the day of deliverance, of reversal, of victory snatched from the jaws of defeat or death. Recall the invitation which the prophet Hosea extended to his contemporaries: “Come, let us return to the Lord. . . he will revive us after two days; on the third day, he will raise us up to live in his presence” (Hosea 6:1-2). On the third day, as Abraham was about to sacrifice Isaac, God told him to spare the life of his son (Genesis 22:4). Joseph freed his brothers from the Egyptian prison on the third day (Genesis 42:18). On the third day, Yahweh appeared to the wandering tribes on Sinai (Exodus 19:11, 16). On the third day, David received the news that Saul, who was trying to kill him, had died (2 Samuel 1:2). The prophet Isaiah told Hezekiah that he would be healed from a grave illness on the third day (2 Kings 20:5). On the third day, and when their situation seemed most hopeless, Esther initiated her plan for saving her fellow Jews (Esther 5:1). In the didactic fiction of Johah, freedom from the belly of the great fish came on the third day (Jonah 1:17).

Given this rich and colorful history, it is not surprising that the early Christians were quick to describe Jesus’ liberation from the grip of death in terms of the third day. Woven into the earliest kerygma and preached to all who would listen (see first reading and gospel), the phrase, on the third day, became a verbal clarion call; God has reversed the finality of death. Jesus who was dead is vindicated and lives forever.

Today, on the third day after remembering Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross, believers are celebrating the divine reversal of that event in the faith that Christ’s resurrection stands as a sure pledge of what each of us will eventually share.

In his study of the implications of the third day and Jesus’ resurrection, David Stanley (Contemplation of the Gospels, Ignatius Loyola and the Contemporary Christian) underscored the fact that the risen Jesus remains eternally present to the church: “Jesus Christ, through his exaltation to the Father’s right hand, has not been removed to some mythical existence beyond the furthest galaxy, but is actually more dynamically present in the world than he ever was when he walked the hills of Galilee.”

Because of Jesus’ dynamic and abiding presence, every day is the third day. Each day is marked by redemption from death. Therefore, ours should be what Gerald O’Collins has called an Easter morality (What Are They Saying About The Resurrection, Paulist Press, New York: 1978). Only by sharing in the events of Jesus dying and rising --only by confronting and confounding sin and death-- only by letting the mystery of the resurrection seize us and inform all our thoughts, words and actions will we become truly Christian and true heirs of Easter glory.

Today is the third day, let us live accordingly.

ACTS 10:34, 37-43

Cornelius and Peter had both experienced the risen Lord; by virtue of that experience, each was led to perceive one another in a different light. Cornelius was a centurion (in charge of one hundred men) stationed at the Cohort known as the Italian in Caesarea. Described as pious, God-fearing and prayerful (Acts 10:2), Cornelius was, nevertheless, a gentile. Ordinarily, Peter would have avoided all contact with the soldier, not wishing to be rendered ritually unclean. But, Jesus had disrupted the centuries’ old traditions regarding purity, and the church, which proclaimed his saving death and resurrection, could do no less.

In relating the details of Cornelius’ conversion, Luke enables his readers to trace the expansion of the church both geographically and demographically. That God intended, all along, for the gentiles to share in the blessings of Abraham could not be made more clear by the Lucan author. Throughout his gospel (Luke) and its sequel (Acts), the evangelist underscored again and again the universal scope of Jesus mission and that of his followers. But the all inclusive nature of the church was a quality that was not, and still is not easily achieved. The struggle to be transformed by God’s impartiality continues; with Peter, believers are still trying to grasp the truth that “anyone who fears God,” i.e. has faith in God, “and acts righteously is acceptable to God” (Acts 10:34a).

As Luke Timothy Johnson (The Acts of the Apostles, The Liturgical Press, Collegeville MN: 1992) has explained, “the struggle Luke seeks to communicate to the reader is the process of human decision-making as the Church tries to catch up to God’s initiative.” Today’s first reading represents an excerpt from Peter’s final kerygmatic speech in Acts. Like the speeches of Paul, Peter’s proclamations served as literary vehicles through which Luke repeatedly communicated his soteriology, viz., “everyone shall be saved who calls on the name of the Lord” (Acts 2:21).

L. T. Johnson (op. cit.) has called Peter’s speech a master summation of the Luke’s own gospel narrative. In it, Luke included: the movement of Jesus from Galilee to Jerusalem, his mission’s starting point in John’s baptism, the emphasis on healings as the overthrow of the devil’s counter-kingdom, the rejection and death of Jesus on the cross and the appearances to select witnesses at meals with the commission to preach forgiveness of sins.

As the church celebrates the central event of its life and faith, Luke’s summary of the good news reminds believers of the blessings that are theirs.

Luke’s words also challenge the Easter community to witness more authentically to those blessings in their daily lives.

COLOSSIANS 3:1-4 and 1 CORINTHIANS 5:6-8

Both of the alternative readings for Easter Sunday begin with the premise of the resurrection and then draw inferences from that central tenet of the faith as it should impact upon the life and commitment of believers.

For example, the author of the letter to the Christians of Colossae reminds his readers that, through baptism, disciples of Jesus have entered into the mystery of his dying and rising. Therefore, believers are called to set their hearts on what pertains to higher realms. Obviously, the ancient author was not advocating a “pie in the sky” spirituality which disdains the things and events of this world. Readers of Colossians will notice that this short pericope is followed by a paranesis (persuasive preaching), in which the author detailed a series of ethical principles concerning practical Christian commitment in an un-Christian world.

The church in Colossae was plagued by an incipient brand of gnosticism that regarded matter as evil and scoffed at the very notion of the resurrection of the body as an absurdity. For this reason, the author of Colossians was quick to defend the centrality of Jesus’ death and resurrection as the means by which God effected the redemption of humankind. Whereas the proponents of gnosticism believed that their “redemption” could be effected by transcending their lesser self (the body) in order to acquire secret knowledge (gnosis), the author of Colossians underscored redemption as due to God’s gracious activity in Christ. Notice the reminder to believers, “you have been raised” (v. 1). Because of Jesus’ resurrection and by virtue of their participation in it, believers can no longer be tethered by trivial concerns or fettered by provincial views and values. Those touched by the reality of Easter are freed from temporality to share in eternal and enduring glory.

In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul also underscored the implications of Jesus’ resurrection for believers. Christ is our Passover; in order to celebrate this reality, Christians are to replace the old yeast of corruption and wickedness with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Because its leavening properties were not understood by our ancestors in the faith, yeast was thought to be an impure substance and its use was prohibited in foods that were to be offered in sacrifice. Recall the prescriptions that required homes to be swept clean of yeast as a preparation for Passover (Exodus 12:15). In a sense, Paul is calling the Easter community to a similar “house cleaning”. Those who have passed from death to life, in Christ Jesus, are to rid themselves of their former wickedness.

Paul’s admonition to his Greek converts was prompted by their continued tolerance of a sinner in their midst. Evidently, there was a member of the Corinthian church who was living with his stepmother; rather than correct the situation or expel the man, the community turned a blind eye to his incestuous union (1 Corinthians 5:1-5). Paul castigated the community for its inactivity and called for a renewal of the “Passover purity” Jesus had achieved for all sinners.

Contemporary readers of Colossians and/or 1 Corinthians are reminded that the reality of the third day must continue to impinge on the believer’s every word and work each and every day.

JOHN 20:1-9

In and of itself, the discovery of the empty tomb, first by Mary Magdalene, and then by Peter and the beloved disciples (probably John), did not lead to faith in Jesus’ resurrection. Notice that Mary did not conclude from the emptiness of the tomb that Jesus had risen; she presumed someone had stolen the body (v. 2). Indeed, those who tried to nip the burgeoning church in the bud circulated a similar story. Although a version of the empty tomb narrative appears in each of the four canonical gospels, it was not included in the earliest kerygma (see speeches in Acts, 1 Corinthians 15) and should be understood as a secondary witness. As Raymond E. Brown (“The Gospel According to John”, The Anchor Bible, Volume 29A, Doubleday, New York: 1970) has noted, most critics assign the narratives to a later stratum of tradition that those of the appearances of the risen Jesus and some scholars regard them as purely apologetic creations. Rather than dismiss them as purely apologetic in character, Brown believes that the empty tomb narratives serve an auxiliary purpose. For those who had experienced Jesus as risen by virtue of his appearances to them, the ambiguity of the empty tomb was resolved. Moreover, the narratives concerning the tomb helped to underscore the continuity between the Jesus of the ministry (who had walked, talked, and broken bread with his own) with the transformed and glorified risen Lord. He was no longer buried; he was alive!

Mary’s motivation for coming to the tomb on the third day, or as John says, “on the first day of the week,” is not specified in the fourth gospel. Mark and Luke told their readers that women came with aromatic oils to anoint Jesus’ body. Upon finding Jesus gone, Mary ran off to tell the apostles who in turn ran “side by side” (John’s attention to detail points to an eye witness source and makes his narrative quite dramatic) to check out Mary’s strange report.

The fact that the beloved disciple outran Peter, reached the tomb and looked inside but deferred to Peter to enter it first, points to the high regard for Peter’s position in the early church. Moreover, this detail accorded with the earliest resurrection tradition, that Jesus “appeared first to Cephas and then to the Twelve” (1 Corinthians 15:5).

Like the angel messengers of the synoptic narratives, the beloved disciple explained and interpreted the findings at the tomb. The mention of the neatly rolled burial cloths lying in two different places is again evidence of an eye witness. But these details also helped to preclude the possibility of theft. Grave robbers would probably not unwrap a shrouded body; nor would they be particularly tidy.

Thierry Maertens and Jean Frisque (Guide for the Christian Assembly, Fides Publishers, Notre Dame IN: 1971) have suggested that this gospel be understood as the pilgrimage of the apostles toward faith in the resurrection. Not only were they physically traveling to the tomb, but they were journeying, spiritually, as well. From their first assumption that Jesus’ body was stolen to their eventual seeing and believing (v. 8), the apostles’ progress to faith was gradual and measured. Only after their encounter with the risen Jesus (next Sunday’s gospel) and with the support of scripture (v. 9) would they begin to fully accept and understand the mystery of Easter.

With Peter, John, Mary and all who have gone before us in the faith, we continue on the spiritual pilgrimage toward Christ, who was dead but now lives forever.

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