Easter as the icon of our tireless Labourer (Isaiah 61; John 21,1-14)

Both of today’s readings show God as a tireless labourer. All this is against the inertia of human history. ‘The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound…’ ‘And they shall build the old wasters, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations.’ (Isaiah 61,1.4.)

The wild nature (wilderness) of human history is turned into ‘culture’, cultivated nature. We tend to forget that the blueprint and very source of this creation is God. Easter manifests our tireless creator. ‘For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown init to spring forth; so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise the spring forth before all the nations.’ (Isaiah 61,11)

The Gospel appearances show our Easter Lord as this tireless Redeemer. ‘Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find.’ It is worth observing how the resurrected Jesus touches our tangible reality and the realm of hope at the same time. He nourishes the body and the disciples’ hope. ‘Come and dine…Jesus then taketh the bread, and giveth them, and fish likewise.’ (John 21,13)

The event of Easter can be compared to the burning bush. The stories of Jesus’ appearances are like a continuous fire. The Lord, in his full glory, dwells with us, without consuming the facts of our lives, which he completely absorbs. Rashi, when comments the scene of the burning bush, renders the words b’labat esh by b’shal hevet shel esh, libo shel esh. Thus, ‘in a flame of fire’ means ‘the heart of fire’. Thus, the message of God is to be found in the ‘heart of fire’, i.e., in the earnest and sincere inwardness of the heart, where the fiery embers of Godliness abide. (Nissan Mindel, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, A Biography, Kehot Publication Society, p.46.) What can be the message of this exegetical insight? The Gospel aims at burning these visions into our hearts. Then, our witness and conviction comes indeed from our heart as our Easter. Can we contemplate this sentence, as our Easter burning bush itself? ‘This is now the third time that Jesus shewed himself to his disciples, after that he was risen from the dead.’(John 21,14)
 
19.04.2017