Easter Vigil

If you study human history, you’ll discover that there are periods of time when advancements in technology or philosophy cause rapid changes to human culture.

If history meanders like a watercourse across the map of time, these are the waterfalls. Points in time where innovations converge like multiple rivers and rush us to a new level of understanding or technology. 

These advancements either emerge simultaneously in distant geographic areas, or they spread like fire because of their obvious utility. Indeed, the intentional sparking of fire was probably the first such advancement followed by the wheel. The Iron Age was another major global shift.

But I’m really thinking about recorded history. When you look at a global timeline, you find that Confucius, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle all emerged within two centuries, resulting in a significant shift in philosophy. Other great shifts in philosophy are tracked with the emergence of Dante, Pascal, Locke, Voltaire, and Kant.

In the second century, the invention of paper sparked a wave of innovation enabled by the easier spread of ideas. Other great advancements include gunpowder, the windmill, the compass, the mechanical clock, and the printing press.

The printing press then triggered a new wave in the spread of ideas that almost seemed to speed up history. From there, the timeline of human invention becomes so crowded it’s hard to pinpoint where one idea begins and another ends.

The first time I read through the Old Testament as an adult, I became excited by the hints of these historical breakthroughs echoing in the scriptures. You can see in the Old Testament histories, for example, where Bronze Age tribes are suddenly overthrown by more powerful tribes that have already harnessed the power of iron.

I began to anticipate the emergence of prophetic theology, wondering what great wave of innovation led up to Jesus. I expected him to be within or after one of those waterfalls. But I was disappointed. Jesus seems to come out of nowhere.

It was not until I attended my first Easter Vigil that I found the pattern that led to Jesus. I was looking at the wrong histories; I was focused on the emergence of human technologies.

Jesus emerges not from an age of human advancement but from the unending faithfulness of God’s love. The Easter Vigil is unique because it begins with the Old Testament Scriptures, telling the stories of God’s people and God’s covenant with them.

We tell these stories each year as a way to remember. To remind ourselves that God has remained faithful to us across generations of human history. But the particular stories we choose are also special. We specifically track the story of God's covenant with us and how this covenant reveals God’s eternal love. Thus, we begin with Creation, our very inception as beloved creatures of God. We move to the Flood and the promise made with all living creatures. Through the deliverance from slavery in Egypt, the promise of salvation for all the peoples of the earth, and the restoration of God’s people in Israel.

We trace the story of God’s faithfulness across time.

Yet, humans still struggled to fully grasp the power of God’s love.

So, ultimately, this revelation took the form of a human, as God sent love incarnate to walk among us and reveal how truly revolutionary God’s love is.

The radical love demonstrated by Jesus does not emerge from the advancement of human culture. In fact, though the Romans were powerful, their might was brutish, relying on fear, intimidation, and subjugation to maintain their realm. Jesus does not emerge with a great school of thought, a great emergence of technology, or a new invention. Jesus comes to us from a poor family barely surviving in an oppressed region ruled by a ruthless emperor.

In the timeline of human progress, Jesus should not have persisted.

But Jesus is not the result of human progress; Jesus is part of a different storyline. He is the next step in the revelation of God’s love. Jesus embodies the covenant, the reminder of God’s everlasting love for the world. Humans, however, are stubborn and willful. We believed that our power was greater. We held onto our need to control. And in our brokenness, we tortured and executed the Son of God.

Jesus was betrayed, and his disciples denied him. His followers fled, trying to disappear into the countryside to save their own lives. The story should have ended there as only the fading, disjointed memories of an itinerant teacher who preached an unsustainable dream.

Humanity underestimated God’s love yet again.

See, everything that was written about Jesus Christ was only recorded after his resurrection. Three days after Jesus's crucifixion, something happened to the disciples that changed everything. They witnessed something extraordinary that changed everything they understood about Jesus. Instead of hiding and trying to return to their previous lives, Jesus’s disciples were compelled to share and interpret the story of Christ.

God’s love is so powerful that it overcame death to redeem the story.

Jesus is not the end of the story.

The women found no body at the tomb because God is not done with us. The resurrection is not a one-time act that inspired a new religion. The resurrection is the promise that God continues the story, even now.

When we believe that God’s love is greater than death, we are called to be part of the ongoing story of God’s eternal love in the world. We may coyly call the evidence a “God thing” or coincidence while knowing in our hearts that something greater is happening. But when we accept that the story is not over, we cannot help but find evidence of the resurrection in the world today.

This is the promise of the future. This is the hope of eternal life. This is the power that bends the arc of the universe towards love and justice.

The greatest advancement of Creation is not a human invention; it’s that we are loved by God, beloved children of God. The Scriptures remind us of God’s continued faithfulness. Jesus shows us how to walk in that love. We continue to proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in our daily lives. As you go out into the world tonight, know that you are part of the story, heirs of eternal power of God’s love.

The Rev. Mercedes Clements