One Death, One Resurrection
Orchidaceous!
Before I discovered this word I had never hear of it. And now on Easter week I can think of no better opportunity to use this very descriptive word. Even when you are hearing it for the first time, it's a word that immediately evokes an image of awesome beauty. When no other word will do, it is an expression of something extravagantly wonderful. And just like it sounds, the word harkens the imagery of an orchid flower in full bloom. Picture that image for a moment on this most orchidaceous weekend. At the dawn of the world, there was a time when the Lord God walked among the garden blooms in the cool of the day. But Adam, the man in the story, hid among the trees. "Where are you?" The Lord called to him, and Adam answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked (Adam refers here to his loss of holiness), and I hid" (Genesis3:10). Ages later, there was another garden and another man. This man did not hide. He who had said to Lazarus, "Come forth!" emerged from the tomb that held Him. He stood in the light of day and, unlike Adam, he was neither naked nor ashamed. No, this Jesus, son of Mary, was clothed in the multi-colored coat of glory which his heavenly Father had give him as a reward for his obedience. In the splendor of his risen body, he rivaled the sunlight. Indeed, an orchidaceous sight to behold if there ever was one. The crucified Jesus, now made Lord and Messiah, stood forth and said, like Moses at the burning bush, "Here I am" (Exedous3:4). He stood ready, in other words, to sanctify the world.
Unlike Jesus, who is Lord and Christ, we all are guilty sometimes often running out on our duties.
In an old legend from Catalonia in Spain, we hear how the tiny hero, a man known as Padre Pantufet, got lost in the country one day. A kindly ox swallowed the man to protect him. When Pantufet heard his parents calling, "Where are you?" he replied, "I am in the belly of the ox where it does not snow, and it does not rain." What Pantufet did was run away from life. It was as though he had returned to his mother's womb. And today, in the age of pandemic, I know many of us can relate to that feeling. The prophet Jonah ran away from responsibility in the same way. He didn't want to do the job God had chosen for him: preach God's love to the people of Nineveh. As he fled in fear, a whale swallowed him up. But his luck didn't last. He was thrown up on the shore and then still had to go to Nineveh. That is the way it is when you oppose God. There's no place to hide.
Jesus knew the Jonah story well. In referring to it, he used it as a sign of himself. " Just as Jonah spent three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so the Son of Man will spend three days and three nights in the bowels of the earth" (Matthew12:40). But Jesus did not hide in the heart of the earth. E ven in death, he was active, "going in the Spirit" to bring the Good News to the souls of all who had died before Him (1 Peter3: 19). Having done his work with the dead, he came forth to press his advantage. Celebrate this Easter weekend with a commitment to get going and tell others the Good News.