Many years ago I was part of the Church of St. Stephen-in-the-Fields near Kensington Market. The priest at the time was greatly influenced by Eastern Christian theology, and he incorporated into our Easter liturgy the Paschal troparian that is sung during Easter in many Orthodox churches. It’s a very short hymn, and the words go like this: “Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and on those in the tombs restoring life!” That, I think, sums up what is so important about today. Death has been trampled because Christ is risen. In short, the power of death has been interrupted.  

It's important to remember, however, that in ancient Israelite theology, death was not regarded as an instantaneous finality, as though alive one moment and dead the next. Death was a process that took several months to reach its ultimate conclusion. The decomposition of the body’s flesh was the way that mortality, as embedded in the flesh, would ultimately dissolve over time. The bones that remained were thought to retain one’s uncorrupted persona. God would then take these bones at history’s climax and cover them with the new flesh of resurrected life.  

All of that was the head space of Mary Magdalene, whom we encounter in today’s Gospel. When Mary discovered Jesus’ tomb to be empty, it was deeply upsetting. The Romans had imposed a law against tampering with dead bodies. Mary would’ve been fearful of the repercussions. What if she were accused of grave tampering? She also would’ve been dismayed that the process of Jesus’ death, now underway, was disturbed. Recovering his body and returning it to the tomb was imperative.  

But that concern gives way to shock and wonder when she discovers that the cemetery gardener is in fact Jesus resurrected from the dead. Suddenly, retrieving Jesus’ body no longer matters because Mary has found him alive. And the ramifications are perplexing. How is it that Jesus is alive so soon? Didn’t he need to go through the months-long process of death? That is the point of resurrection that Mary and all of Jesus’ followers would eventually come to celebrate: the resurrection is an interruption of death. It tramples down death by preventing death from gaining a permanent foothold.  

There’s more: the resurrection doesn’t just interrupt death. It interrupts our lives as well, in the here and now. It interrupts our assumptions about how we think things ought to be. How is it that the resurrected Jesus doesn’t appear as the same person that Mary would’ve easily recognized? How is it that he is resurrected as the cemetery gardener, a complete stranger? Something similar is recorded at the end of the Gospel of Luke, in the story of two of Jesus’ followers walking to the town of Emmaus. When the risen Jesus joins them on their journey, he’s a total stranger whom they don’t recognize visually. These resurrection stories unsettle our expectations about what the resurrected Jesus might look like, where and how he might appear, and what he might do. The resurrection is an interruption.  

The resurrection is also an invitation to a new and different way of living. That’s exactly what the sacrament of baptism is all about. Baptism, which for centuries has been undertaken at Easter, is a public declaration that one is commiting their life to God as a follower of the way of Jesus. But baptism isn’t just about what we do. It’s also about what God does: God gives the Holy Spirit to empower us to persevere in the new life. This morning we celebrate the step that Ashling and Nolan—mother and young son—are taking. They are declaring themselves Jesus followers, commiting their lives to God so that they are ever receptive to the interruptions of the resurrection. And with that is the divine promise that they are sealed as Christ’s own forever.  

Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and on those in the tombs restoring life. That restoration of life—new life—is available to us all right now. It requires us to be open to the interruption of the risen Jesus where and when we might least expect it. That is the wonderfully upending good news of this day. Resurrection life is not something that lies beyond the horizon; it is everywhere around us. Let’s seek it out!