“Why do you seek the living among the dead?”

In these days when Christians re-live the greatest event that took place in human history – the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ – it is important to continue to reflect on the place of Easter in the Christian life. The Christian faith teaches that the resurrection of Jesus is the cornerstone of Christianity. If Christ had not died and risen to life, there would have been no Christianity. If you take the resurrection away from Christianity, the whole edifice collapses. Arthur Michael Ramsey, a former Archbishop of Canterbury, puts it bluntly when he wrote: “No resurrection, no Christianity.” St. Paul himself testifies to what faith in the resurrection of Jesus Christ means when he says: “If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is empty and our belief comes to nothing” (1 Cor. 15:14).

One of the great moments of the Easter narrative in the Gospels is the visit of Mary of Magdala and the other Mary to the tomb where Jesus was buried very early on the first Easter morning. The Evangelist Luke recounts that, “On the Sabbath the women rested according to the commandment, but the first day of the week, at dawn, they went to the tomb with the perfumes and ointments they had prepared. Seeing the stone rolled away from the opening of the tomb, they entered and were puzzled to find that the body of the Lord Jesus was not there. Two men in dazzling garments appeared beside them. In fright the women bowed to the ground. But the men said, “Why look for the living among the dead? You won’t find him here. He is risen” (Lk 24:1-6).

“Why look for the living among the dead?” That is a great question. We do not normally look for the dead among the living. We look for the dead among the dead and the living among the living. When we go to the cemetery, what else do we go to see other than to look for the dead? So what is the basis of the angelic question: “Why do you seek the living among the dead?” After Jesus died, Joseph of Arimathea, a faithful disciple of Jesus, asked permission from Pilate to remove the body of Jesus from the Cross. Pilate gave him permission and he went and buried the body of Jesus in his own tomb. The women who attended to Jesus followed Joseph to see the tomb where the dead body of Jesus was laid. Upon returning home, they prepared perfumes and ointments. We recall that the death of Jesus occurred on the Preparation Day for the Jewish Sabbath and there hadn’t been sufficient time to prepare his body properly for burial. Since the time for the Sabbath preparation was already near they hurriedly laid him in the tomb and went home to prepare for the Sabbath. On the Sabbath, the women rested in obedience to the commandment, but very early on Sunday morning they made their way to the tomb. They were courageous women who braced the darkness of the dusk. They would have been restless all through the weekend, waiting for the Sabbath to be over so that they can go to the tomb. For them there was something of greater value than sleeping on that Easter morning. And so they took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. Their aim was to go and embalm the corpse of Jesus in order to carry out a definitive and final burial. But on reaching the tomb, they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. When they entered, they did not find the body of Jesus.

For these women, anointing or embalmment is an attempt to hold death at bay, to preserve the corpse from decomposition. However, it was a wasted effort, because embalmment can only maintain a dead person in death; it cannot restore the dead person to life. And so on this first Easter morning the women now see that their concern for the dead body of Jesus and its preservation from decay was only a human endeavour. They realized that Jesus was not to be held captive by death, but that he is truly alive. They see that God has preserved the body of Jesus from decomposition in a definitive way, in a way that only God can accomplish. He died. He was not embalmed, but he did not decay. He broke the chains of death and rose triumphant from the grave. In this episode we can see how inattentive the disciples of Jesus were to the many lessons he taught them about his passion, death and resurrection. Three times in Matthew’s Gospel Jesus predicted his passion, death and resurrection. Yet the disciples did not clearly understand him (Mt. 16:21-23; 17:22-23; 20:17-21). In John 2:19, when the Jews challenged Jesus to give a miraculous sign to prove why he had to drive away those selling in the Temple, he said to them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Evangelist John added that Jesus was referring to the temple of his body. Even the enemies of Jesus knew about this promise. That was why soldiers were stationed at the entrance to the tomb of Jesus to guard it (cf. Mt. 27:63-64).

The enemies of Jesus knew very well that Jesus made the prediction that the grave would not hold him in death. How come these women, and the other disciples of Jesus found it difficult to understand? As we have seen, Jesus told his followers again and again what would happen to him when they got to Jerusalem. He would suffer at the hands of sinful men, he would be crucified and on the third day be raised again. So, the arrest of Jesus should not have been a surprise to his disciples. His crucifixion and death should not have been a surprise. And even his resurrection should not have been a surprise. Jesus told them all these things in advance. But somehow the meaning of these things escaped them. It was only after these things had happened that they remembered his words and put it all together. That was why the angels said to the women, “Remember what he told you in Galilee, that the Son of Man had to be given into the hands of sinners, be crucified, and rise on the third day” (Lk. 24:5-7). It was at this point that the women recalled the words of Jesus.

It is in the resurrection of Jesus Christ that we are who we are. The resurrection of Jesus Christ offers so much hope to the world. We live in a world filled with bitterness and doubt, but the empty tomb speaks of belief. We are surrounded by people filled with depression and desperation, but the empty tomb promises deliverance. To people filled with fear, the empty tomb speaks of the fearlessness of faith. To those bound by their sins, the empty tomb offers them a Saviour and Redeemer. And it turns people worried about punishment into people focused on praise. No other religion in the world offers this kind of hope. No matter what world religion you might think about, their founders are all lying in the tomb, gathering dust. But if you stop by the tomb where Jesus was buried, the body is not there. He is risen! Filled with the Holy Spirit, David had this spiritual intuition when he said: “You will not abandon me to the grave, nor let the body of your Holy One experience decay” (Ps. 16:10).

Like the women who went to the tomb, we too often search for the living among the dead. In our daily journey, we often need to hear that angelic admonition: “Why do you seek the living among the dead?” How often do we look for life among dead things, things that cannot give life, things that are here today and gone tomorrow! We need the gentle words of the angel when we close ourselves within many forms of selfishness and self-complacency; when we allow ourselves to be seduced by the fascination of earthly powers and the things of this world, forgetting God and our neighbour; when we place our trust in worldly vanities. Then the word of God tells us: “Why do you seek the living among the dead?” Why are you looking where you cannot find life?

Ojeifo is a priest of the Catholic Archdiocese of Abuja.