In the Eastern Orthodox Church they define the Great or Holy Week that ends tonight as the “spiritual spring which blossoms with the fruits of the Spirit - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Gal. 5:22).
As we come before the Lord this evening our deep gratitude for his risen presence among us, with us and in us serves that spiritual blossoming.
A folk tale of the Belgian Congo tells of a clearing made in virgin jungle. A patch of ground was exposed to sunlight for the first time in centuries. Strange shoots appeared, strange plants, with flowers of indescribable beauty. No one had ever dreamed such exquisite plants could grow in that dark place.
Isn’t there some truth is this story for us? We allow our sins, negligences and bad habits to grow to the point where our soul becomes like a jungle.
How do we get light into that jungle to get the promised new growth and beauty?
Through sincere repentance. Like Mary Magdalene we are free to reach out to the Risen Lord and hear him call us afresh into intimacy with him. Allowing the touch of his forgiveness upon our hearts brings assurance that He will there and then remove the sins that hide from us the life-giving sun of His Spirit.
Mary Magdalene knew this already. She was so very appropriately the first witness of his resurrection as we just heard. She stood in that Easter Garden thinking they’d taken away her Lord and yet he was there.
Jesus was there in a hidden way, as he is here tonight, hidden again under the appearance of bread in the Blessed Sacrament and hidden among us in the hearts of his faithful people.
Mary Magdalene was first to see the Day of Resurrection, that spiritual spring which was going to open up the possibilities of God in all ages to all believers for them to blossom forth. She’d already seen the jungle of her life cleared by her Lord. Spiritual flowers of indescribable beauty grew where formerly there were but weeds. Now that growth became literally other worldly as Christ’s resurrection took her, as it takes us, beyond the forgiveness of sin and into the promise of immortality.
Holy Week and Easter are one of the Church’s means of helping us clear away the jungle of our life and achieve our greatest potential. This is granted as we come close afresh to the risen Lord Jesus in repentance and faith.
On Good Friday the children built us an Easter Garden outside church. Today we gather inside Church before the risen Lord to seek his blessing.
Jesus wants to see Easter Gardens grow up inside church in you and me. The fixture of the Easter Garden is a reminder of how the resurrection gains for the world a spiritual flowering. It is a flowering of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control through you and me.
The beautiful time of year is surely coming. Sussex is a beautiful place. What does Jesus most want though – he wants inner beauty! Having given us life he came this Week to bring us his life, immortal life that to flow in us as we come clean with him and trust the empowering Easter brings to repentant souls!
May the beauty of Jesus be seen in us as we open ourselves afresh to that empowerment on the Day of Resurrection!
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