"Suddenly Jesus met them and said, 'Hello'."
That's not an isolated instance, either. He looks so understated that Mary takes him to be the gardener. He walks along with a couple of travellers on the road as if he's any old stranger. He stands among his frightened friends, and the first word out of his mouth is, "Peace".
It made me think how we totally take for granted that Jesus didn't rise from the dead and say, "Right! Now you're all really going to find out who's boss!" He didn't even say, "Well, that showed me who my real friends are, didn't it?" He didn't hunt down Pilate and Caiaphas and the others who condemned him to death.
None of those. As the Lectio 365 reflection for Easter Sunday puts it, "The appearances of the resurrected Jesus tell us so much about the heart of God." Jesus didn't go for revenge, world domination, instant judgement, or any of the things you might expect of someone who had just triumphed over death.
Instead, he quietly met his friends and said, "Hello". We're not always looking for a God like that, are we? We expect him to show up in a big way, to jump on us when we get it wrong - in short, to act like we think an all-powerful being should act.
But what we get is a God who turns up beside us as if he's never been away, and says, "Here I am. Be at peace."
And we say, "Wait. Didn't you just...?"
"Rise from the dead? Of course. Here, have some breakfast."
Most. Understated. Resurrection. Ever.
Happy Easter!
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