Sophie and the Women of Jerusalem by Painter: Dina Cormick Image copyright

Reading Luke’s Gospel 24-1-12 with Ecological Eyes - Part Three

In part three of her series Elaine Wainwright writes of the experience of resurrection in Luke 24:1-12 as Jesus breaking open astounding new possibilities. 
Luke 24:1 But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they [the women] came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. 2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they went in, they did not find the body. 4 While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. 5 The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. 6 Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, 7 that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.” 8 Then they remembered his words, 9 and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. 10 Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles. 11 But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. 12 But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened.

It seems appropriate at this point in the church’s liturgical year to turn our ecological lens onto the account of the resurrection of Jesus as told in the Lucan gospel. We heard this story during the celebration of Easter. We might be tempted to think that resurrection could scarcely be associated with the ecological as it seems to point beyond the corporeal to what is often named as spiritual. The recently celebrated vigil liturgy would remind us otherwise. There, light broke into darkness as fire was kindled. Water flowed abundantly. Bread was broken and shared, and wine drunk. It seems that resurrection could be celebrated only in and through the material.

Desecration of the Body

Before engaging resurrection, however, we need to recognise that for Jesus, resurrection cannot be separated from the absolute degradation to which his body and person was subjected, crucified at the hands of the Roman political system. This abjection captures our attention today as we recognise that human persons are still desecrated at the hands of political and economic forces and that their environment (houses, land, waterways and more) suffers similar destruction. The resurrection of Jesus speaks of hope beyond death and the return to Earth of his human body is not the last word.

Cyclic Time

The Lucan gospel narrative of Jesus’ resurrection is replete with materiality and physicality. The narrative begins with a time reference — on the “first day of the week”, and “at early dawn” (Lk 1:5; 8:22; 10:35; 22:7). These references to time invite readers into cyclical time. It is the “first day of the week”, a day of expectation, of new possibilities as a new week begins. It also invites our openness to these possibilities particularly in the face of the despair that the distress of our Earth can cause us. “Early dawn”—the time of transition as the sun breaks in on a new day — also turns our minds and hearts to potential transformations.

Women come to the tomb, that place of death and entombment in Earth of Jesus’ desecrated body. They bring with them “spices they had prepared”. They had given time and love to the preparation of the “spices and ointments” (Lk 23:56) in order to care for the body of Jesus beyond entombment. They honour the body. They invite reflection on the intimate interrelationship between the gifts of Earth and the human community. And they question how these gifts can be used respectfully. They are showing right relationships.

Breaking into Right Order

Resurrection breaks in on the women’s right ordering. The material world has changed. At the end of the day before this Sabbath, the women had observed the tomb and how Jesus’ body was laid (Lk 23:55). Now they find that the order has been disturbed—the stone is rolled away from the tomb and Jesus’ body is not there (Lk 24:2). This reordering terrifies the women who bow their faces to the ground. They can no longer rely on Earth and its seemingly right ordering. With resurrection, something new has happened right in the midst of the Earth community. The women’s spices are no longer necessary and the heavy tomb door can be rolled back.

Life in Places of Death

Like the women with their spices, the ecological reader is invited to be open to the possibility of the new even in the face of the most abject of situations. And Earth, like the risen one, has the power within to find life in places of death. It can break open what appears to destroy and restrict. We see grasses and plants squeezing into life between rocks and in crevices. We see the possibility of transformation even in the hardest of human hearts. These transformations will allow such issues as climate change to be addressed, the development of alternatives to fossil fuels, and the cessation of the pollution of our waterways.

Seeing and Telling

As the Lucan story unfolds, we learn that resurrection, the breakthrough from death to life, must be told and proclaimed. The spice-bearing women, initially terrified by resurrection breaking into their physical universe, return to tell their companion disciples (Lk 24:9). The Lucan narrator gives these women authority by naming them, “Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them” (Lk 24:10) and by telling their experience at the empty tomb. But their message of the transformation of the material body of Jesus, of transformation that can take place in any material context, is said to “seem an idle tale” within the biblical narrative. The male disciples do not believe the women.

This short resurrection account has a fascinating ending. Peter goes looking for evidence of what the women have witnessed and told the disciples about. Luke tells of Peter as seeing differently from the women who “did not see the body”. Peter sees the cloths that covered Jesus’ dead body lying “by themselves” — a sign of the physical transformation. But unlike the women he does not explore the transformation further or share it with others. He simply goes home amazed.

Responding to Transformation

The contemporary ecological reader is attentive to the key moments of transformation experienced and witnessed in this account. They evoke the changes we see and experience taking place now in our world. Luke’s resurrection account alerts us to the different responses we can make to the extraordinary transformations — those changes from abject death-dealing to life-enhancing resurrection. They invite us to attend, hear and believe what might seem like an “idle tale”, as well as encourage us to tell about the new experience — rather than just return home amazed.

Newness is taking place in ecological consciousness. Transformation is occurring with ecological action. Easter invites us to engage profoundly with this newness.


Published in Tui Motu InterIslands Issue 203 April 2016.