He is Risen! (Christ our brother)

Every Easter morning we would get a call from mom (typically waking us up), with the proclamation, “He is risen!”

I miss this call so much.

Every Easter that comes and goes since mom’s passing the Holy Spirit gives me a deeper appreciation and understanding of Easter. The year mom passed in 2017, I wrote a reflection three years ago a couple months before mom passed about Mary Magdalene and the disciples in John 20.

In John 20, John is telling the story of Mary at the tomb crying for her messiah thinking they had carried him away because the tomb is empty. Mary is distraught, lost and confused standing by the tomb. In verse 16 while Mary is talking to the “gardener” (which carries lot of meaning); “Jesus said to her, “Mary”.

I have read this scripture so many times, but this morning it was different. Jesus speaks her name directly. I feel like the way Jesus spoke her name was so loving, so kind, so reassuring. Mary was looking at the tomb wondering where He was, lost, hopeless and probably afraid. All Jesus says is “Mary”. She then turns around cries out ,”Rabboni!” (Teacher)

There is such joy in the interaction, so much reassurance that he is near and with Mary.

Mom started getting sick in the spring of 2017 and so Easter is both beautiful and hard as all of the memories flood back. I remember mom calling me when she was sick and saying weakly, “He is risen.” Death was starting to take her through the mini-strokes she was suffering, but she still wanted to communicate one last time that resurrection had happened. Over the next couple of months after Easter Sunday in 2017, I have sensed Christ’s presence in such a tangible way and literally sensed Christ speaking my name when I was looking at the tomb of death wondering what was going to happen to mom.

We have a God that longs to speak our name and call us into intimacy with Him. We have a God that incarnated himself in order to be with us. We have a God that is constantly speaking our name to turn around from looking at the tomb in order to be with Him.

I ask myself the question, why did mom want to call all five of her boys early Sunday and proclaim, “He is risen”? I believe it’s because mom had experienced the same renaming that Mary experienced early Sunday morning. This is the beauty of Easter resurrection! Christ renames us.

Then Jesus tells Mary, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” It’s so fascinating that after Jesus renames Mary that he says, “Go instead to my brothers….” He calls the disciples “my brothers”. Why? Because Christ is our brother and comes into this world to feel and identify with our pain, and to deal with sin in all of its manifestations, renaming us through the power of Holy Spirit

I am grateful that every Easter morning I am reminded of a God who has come to deal with sin and death and resurrects us from the grave. I am grateful for the recognition that Christ is our brother and is always calling our names into a closer walk with Him. I am grateful for the resurrection of Christ that has broken the powers of death so that we will see mom again in the new heavens and the new earth. I’m grateful for a mom that tried to live her life in light of the resurrection.