We are forgetful.
We forget.
That is the beginning of the Easter message.
We are told, along with the women disciples, to remember.
Well, actually the beginning of the message is a question, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?”
If you are familiar with Angels, they don’t ask questions, they make announcements, they exist to be messengers.
These angels seem to be breaking angelic etiquette, they seem to be flustered, frustrated by the disciples missing the point. Have they already forgotten?
They make the announcement of Jesus being alive as part of a question, a question that questions the disciples’ mental capacity.
“This is good news you idiots, stop hanging around grave yards you sickos!”
We forget.
We forget that we are people of good news.
We cling to Jesus like he is my personal property, my precious friend, my personal tragedy.
We forget that Jesus is good news, good news to share, to proclaim, to live, to recreate the world and all of history, to recreate our humanity.
We forget. We cling to death. We spread death.
It is no wonder the angels lose patience and the good news message becomes a good news question of our character.
Their memories are jogged. They remember and they go forth, sharing the news, to yet more thick-headed disciples who simply dismiss the message as an idle tale.
My first time seeing an angel and it asks me, “Why are you here?”
I would be concerned!
The angel asks me why do I hang around tombs. Why do I seek the company of the dead?
I would be concerned.
The angel asks me why am I not living? Why am I not out there looking for the living among the living?
You know what the angel is really saying, don’t you?
Stop acting like you are dead already. Life is out there. Go seek it out, seek him out, go tell what you know, that death has been emptied.
I don’t know about you, but an angel shows up and tells me that I’m not dead yet, I’d go do some living.
The disciples were in turn perplexed, terrified, dismissive and amazed.
He was just here. We saw his body laid right here. That’s what I remember!
Why are you here?
Why do you cling to death?
Why are you not somewhere else, anywhere else, living, really living?
Get out of the tomb.
Remember what he told you. It is as he said. All is as it must be.
Remember who are!
Such rude angels, going off message and asking such a hard question, a question that isn’t really a question.
Stop being dead! Jesus isn’t. There it is.
Stop being dead! Jesus isn’t.
Snarky angels. They must have graduated from the school of southern grandmothers.
Death has been reversed.
Humanity has begun anew, Jesus is the new Adam, the new humanity.
We have another chance.
Stop wasting it!
The message is still there carried in their question for us to hear and be startled.
Don’t you remember?
Stop being dead! Jesus isn’t.
Spread the message.
Be the message.
“He is not here, but has risen.”