A large stone is used to close the entrance to the lions’ den, and itself is sealed with the royal seal. First thing next morning, Darius hurries to the tomb, it is opened and, lo and behold, Daniel has been preserved He is released, and has gained even more favour with the king. (I have an image in mind of the lions lining up and saluting as Daniel emerges. But I suspect that’s just a bit over-fanciful.)
There is a distinct similarity with Jesus’s tomb. His tomb too has a large stone across the entrance, and, in St Matthew’s gospel account, the soldiers secure the stone with a seal.
There’s a difference, of course. Daniel was alive when he went into the lions’ den, and comes out alive. Jesus, on the other hand, is placed in the tomb dead, truly dead. And later, the stone is found mysteriously removed, and the tomb proves empty, mysteriously empty of Jesus’s body.
But then Jesus is found alive, alive in a totally new way, the resurrection. For Mary Magdalene, and then for Jesus’s closest disciples in various groupings, there were intense experiences of Jesus still with them. He was not to be with them in his previous bodily form – that era had ended.
In St John’s story of Mary Magdalene meeting Jesus in the garden, shown in Botticelli’s painting, he says ‘Do not hold on to me’: ‘noli me tangere’ in the famous Latin phrase.
And, from the lips of the angelic man that Mary Magdalene and two other women encountered at the tomb in St Mark’s account: ‘Go tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him’.
So Jesus is not to be held on to, either physically or in location. Jesus is to be with his friends, not just in Jerusalem, but in their home country of Galilee, where indeed some of them went back to work and discovered the presence of Jesus with them as they fished in the lake. He was to be more accessible and more widely available for them and for the whole world community than ever he could be in his original bodily form.
Christian teaching is that Jesus had been God incarnate, in flesh. But he was not for the future to be in flesh. It was not reincarnation, because Jesus himself was not now to be in flesh. Reincarnation is an important tenet of a number of Indian religions – the theory is that, in response to personal virtue, human beings can progress upwards through successive rebirths towards harmony and personal peace. This doctrine isn’t shared by Christianity.
But there is a form of Christian reincarnation I want to commend to you. Christians are a body of believers. More than that, we are the body of Christ. St Paul frequently used that image. The Eucharist symbolises this, as we share in the bread and wine, the body and blood of the Lord.
We are the body of Christ, his mind, his hands and feet, to live out his continuing presence and do his work in the time and place we live in. So it is we who are Christ reincarnated. Spiritually speaking, we are the body and the flesh of Christ. Jesus has no other way of communicating with the world and caring for the world except through us.
A recent Christian journal, The Tablet, had this in its editorial:
The Church has [sometimes] failed . . . . Indeed the inevitability of failure is at the heart of a Church that worships a crucified Lord. But it is a failure redeemed: its Saviour is resurrected from the dead and incarnated for the rest of human history in his Mystical Body, the Church.[i]
And now perhaps we can return to the large stones that were installed across the entrances to the lion’s den and Jesus’s tomb. They were real stones, of course. But we can treat them as symbols, concrete metaphors, communicating important insights. Those stones were placed as restrictions, blockages, to prevent escape of one kind or another. They were placed by officialdom, and sealed to restrict truth and freedom. Some blockages against human fulfilment are definitely placed by officialdom, especially in totalitarian countries of one kind or another. But there are also blockages of other kinds, not least in our psychological and spiritual lives. Some blockages were created in our childhood. Some, other people place on us, and some we place on others. Some we find ourselves with, when things from our past come and haunt us, and prevent us moving on.
But, by one means or another, they can be moved. Daniel’s was moved by human hand, Jesus’s by who knows what agency, both, we might say, were removed by God. And what emerged was life, living, being: Daniel to a new life, less restricted than before; and Jesus to a new kind of life, totally and utterly unrestricted. Jesus is alive, and so we are all alive. For Jesus and for us, the Body of Christ, there is access to the love and forgiveness of God and new life in Christ. That is freedom.
Jesus was with the fishermen in Galilee as they went about their work and daily lives. We, you and I, are Jesus reincarnated, the body of Christ. Just consider that for a moment. What a privilege. What a responsibility. God help us in that. But, never fear: the stone was rolled away; our stones can be rolled away. The Easter message is of God’s presence with us wherever we are and whatever we are doing, and, despite how it sometimes feels, always and in whatever circumstances. Jesus cried on the Cross, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me’. But he found God again before he died: ‘Into your hands I commit my spirit’, he prayed. And Jesus’s resurrection is the assurance of God with us always.
Prayers
Mindful of God’s constant presence with us, we can pray:
Lord God, your grace is sufficient for all our needs. Lift us, we pray, above our doubts and anxieties into the calm of your presence. Guarded by your peace, may we serve you without fear all the days of our lives. Lord God, help us to live up to our calling as members of the body of Christ, and to grow closer to one another, so that your Kingdom may be built on earth. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
With all the world’s troubles and pain in our minds, let’s pray for the presence and peace of Christ.
Lord God, you know all the troubles within our wold community just now. Send your Holy Spirit to guide all our political and economic leaders towards solutions to problems and an end to violence. Help us all to contribute to relief of suffering in hunger, homelessness and sickness, and to share our national and personal resources with those in need. Lord God, bless all the peoples of the world, and help us all to grow in understanding and love for one another.
Lord God, we hold in our minds before you those who are physically or mentally ill, depressed or lonely. Be with those we know and those from our cathedral community who are ill at home, in hospital and in care homes. . . . , and grant to those who tend them the skills and compassion they need for their work. We hold in our minds before you those who have died: those we remember particularly and those who have died recently, including . . . . [and those whose years’ minds fall today . . . .]. Grant them rest and peace in your presence, and to those who are mourning grant comfort and strength..
Lord God, be near us each day of our lives, and help us to remember your presence with us, in good times and bad times, in our strength and in our weakness. Guide us in all we undertake, in our work and leisure, and help us to care for the people we encounter. And grant us your peace.
We ask all this in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The Grace . . .
[1] The Tablet, 11.03.23, p. 2.
