Let’s be happy to stay in the mystery of the resurrection

How do we explain new life? We use bunnies, eggs and chicks, butterflies and other images. I like all of these. They reflect our need for images to describe things when words fail. We use these images to try to describe the indescribable events of this weekend. What image would you use to describe or represent resurrection?

There are a variety of stories about resurrection, but for Christians the events this weekend celebrate the resurrection by God of Jesus from the dead.

Jesus who had been crucified on a Roman cross and was put in a tomb, dead. After three days, when the women went to the grave they were told that he was no longer dead, but alive. How can we explain such a thing?

Resurrection is bringing back from the dead. How do we explain this great mystery? Therein lies the problem.

We try to explain mystery and, in doing so, fail. Our words are lacking, so we use images. Mystery has to do with silence, attentiveness and listening with the “ears of our heart.” It cannot be explained. It must be experienced. It is something that happens deep within us. It is a knowing that cannot be explained.

In her book Lost in Wonder, Esther de Waal tells the story of being in the prehistoric chamber tomb of Knowth in the Boyne valley in Ireland.

She tells of the response of the guide when he was asked the meaning of the designs and decoration found on the huge rock slabs. He responded: “I am happy to stay in the mystery.”

There is a deep knowing to be found in the experience of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is central to who we are as Christians. Our life is to be shaped and formed through this historical event. For every generation, Jesus brings the dream of a world where the good news is lived out — the broken-hearted are healed, the captives are freed and the prisoners are released from darkness.

It is not just resurrection for Jesus 2,000 years ago. It is resur- rection for us now. It is resurrection for me as an individual, as part of a faith community. It is resurrection in our neighbourhoods and in our political worlds.

It is the promise of a new life — an opportunity to begin again, to live and do things differently, and to build a better world starting with where we live.

It calls us to live in a particular way when we do not engage in the details of how. It calls us to a life of peace, non-violence, diversity and inclusiveness, and an ability to love. I cannot explain how this works. I just know it does.

I love the bunnies, the eggs (particularly the chocolate ones), the chicks and the butterflies. I don't know how all this works together. It is a mystery and I am content to live in the mystery of what the Creator has done and is doing.

The Right Reverend Logan McMenamie is the Anglican Bishop of the Diocese of British Columbia.