Do you call it dirt or do you call it soil?

Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her. John 20:18

Do you call it dirt or do you call it soil? I tend to use the terms interchangeably. But there is a difference. Dirt does not contain the nutrients needed for plants to grow. Soil has nutrients and also life in it – including those creepy crawly things that stir and digest the soil, making it all the better for roots to wiggle their way down into the earth. Mary Magdalene went to an empty tomb on that first Easter morning. She mistook the resurrected Jesus as a gardener. After Jesus said her name, she saw who was with her. I often marvel at this encounter. She did not see, and then she saw. Perhaps her tears and grief blinded her at first, or perhaps it was the unimaginable possibility that Jesus could be alive after such a gruesome death on the cross. Perhaps she came expecting only dirt, decay, and death – what she got was the living and risen Lord standing right before her.

The story of Easter is soil. It is full of life. As Christians, our roots are sunk deep into this mystery – that Jesus has defeated the powers of sin and death. All our hopes grow from this. God takes what is lifeless and creates life. God takes what is dead and makes it alive again. Our story is more than dust to dust – or dirt to dirt – it is dirt to soil. Each time we hear the Easter story, we are reminded that we are alive and so much can grow within us and from us. Jesus calls us away from those things that are empty and lifeless – he whispers our names and beacons us to sink our roots deep into him and be the people we were created to be – alive and full of faith, hope, and love. This kind of life produces branches that reach out and touch others with the good news of our living Lord.

May we see Jesus alive in our lives and may we be bold in our witness to him.