Easter is not good news without the cross
The shock of Easter isn’t just the empty grave. It’s that God comes back from death and doesn’t condemn the unrighteous ones who put him there.
It’s vogue in the mainline Christian tribe to insist that the gospel is really all about the resurrection, not the cross. I had umpteen emails say just that after my Easter sermon this year.
Never mind that St. Paul, in his rundown of the gospel kerygma in 1 Corinthians 15, inextricably links cross and burial and resurrection. What reveals resurrection alone to be deficient as gospel is the one feature common to all the Gospels’ Easter narratives. Mark and Matthew, Luke and John, the Gospels all agree: the very first reaction to news of the resurrection is fear.
The soldiers guarding the tomb faint from fear. The women, come to anoint the body, run away. Terrified. The disciples lock the door and cower in the corner.
