+ In the Love of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The two Marys are running with great joy to tell the disciples “He is risen!” and suddenly they come face to face with Jesus and he says to them, “Greetings!”
I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I’ve ever greeted anyone by saying “Greetings!” Usually, it’s “Hello!” or “Hi!” And, in fact, that’s the common, ordinary meaning of the Greek word translated in this morning’s Gospel as “Greetings!” Once upon a time people may have said “Greetings!” but these days it just sounds archaic and much too formal.
So the only thing the translator got right is the use of the exclamation point, because one thing’s for sure― someone who’s just been raised from the dead doesn’t say an ordinary “Hello!” or “Hi, there!” In fact, although the Greek word has the common, ordinary meaning of “Hello!” the literal meaning of the word is “Rejoice!” and it’s hard to imagine that the risen Jesus would have met the two Marys with anything less than the greatest rejoicing.
So please stand up, and turn to the persons near you as if you’re Jesus and you never thought you’d ever see them again and give to them a great big “Rejoice!”
{{Congregational Response}} [Afterward, the congregation is seated again.]
There are two other times in Matthew’s Gospel when he uses the word “Hello.” In the Garden of Gethsemane when Judas betrays Jesus he says to him, “Greetings, Rabbi!” And when the soldiers dress Jesus in a purple robe and put a crown of thorns on his head, they say to him, “Hail”― “Greetings”― “Hey there”― King of the Jews!”
The betraying Judas and the mocking soldiers remind us that the same word may be used to bleed as well as bless, to hurt as well as heal, to savage as well as salvage.
In just a moment we will renew our Baptismal Covenant, and one of the questions we will answer is this: “Will you proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ?”
I had always understood this question in a narrow, evangelistic sense. To “proclaim by word” meant saying something like, “Jesus loves you!” or asking something like, “Are you saved?”
But now I realize that whenever we use words to bless rather than to bleed, we proclaim the Good News of God in Christ. Whenever we use words to heal rather than to hurt, we proclaim the Good News of God in Christ. And whenever we use words to salvage rather than to savage, we proclaim Good News of God in Christ.
There’s another ordinary word with an extraordinary meaning in this morning’s Gospel. When the angel sends the two Marys on their way, the angel tells them to “tell his disciples,” but when Jesus sends the two Marys on their way, Jesus tells them to “tell my brothers.” Now in this case what makes the ordinary word “brothers” so extraordinary is not its literal meaning, but its spiritual meaning, and its spiritual meaning is “forgiveness.” For these disciples whom Jesus now calls his brothers are the same disciples who had abandoned Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane and fled for their lives. Jesus uses the word “brothers” to bless and heal and salvage his forgiven disciples.
“Rejoice” and “Forgive”― these are resurrection words, these are words which bless and heal and salvage.
The poet David Whyte wrote a piece titled Loaves and Fishes, an allusion to the time when Jesus took five loaves of bread and two fish, and blessed them, and broke them, and gave them to over five thousand people:
This is not
the age of information.
This is not
the age of information.
Forget the news,
and the radio,
and the blurred screen.
This is the time
of loaves
and fishes.
People are hungry
and one good word is bread
for a thousand.
Alleluia! Christ is Risen! The Lord is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!
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