In the folk opera Hadestown
Hermes —
both the narrator and a character —
introduces us,
the audience,
to Hades, Persephone, Eurydice, and Orpheus.
He warns us that this
sung-through show is an old song,
and it’s a sad song.
But!
He lets us know,
it’s a love song.
As we’ve walked this triduum,
Maundy Thursday, Good Friday,
and Easter —
starting with last night —
we’ve reflected on God’s love song to us,
as we’ve again told the old, sad song
of the last week of Jesus’ life.
In Hadestown, as Oprheus and Eurydice are falling in love
Orpheus says that he’s working on a song.
It isn’t finished yet.
It’s “a song to fix what’s wrong
Take what’s broken, make it whole
A song so beautiful
It brings the world back into tune
Back into time
And all the flowers will bloom.”
That’s God’s song that we join in today
as we say, Alleluia! Christ is risen!
Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia!
When we say or sing or pray
“Christ is risen from the dead,
trampling down death by death
and upon those in the tombs
Bestowing life,”
we’re joining God’s song.
Jesus’ resurrection is God’s song
to fix what’s wrong.
Jesus’ resurrection is God’s song
to take what’s broken, make it whole.
Jesus’ resurrection is God’s song
so beautiful that it brings the world back in to tune,
and back in to time
all because of God’s love for us.
Like Hermes telling the story,
singing the song,
of Orpheus and Eurydice,
Hades and Persephone
again and again and again
we hear again
this story from John’s gospel.
“Early on the first day of the week,
while it was still dark,
Mary Magdalene came to the tomb
and saw that the stone
had been removed from the tomb.”
This is one of the Marys
who’d stayed with Jesus to his death.
The women at the cross
never left his side,
and now we have a woman
as the first to visit the tomb.
The stone has been moved, though!
She goes to the male disciples
who’ve locked themselves away.
John — acknowledging his own imperfection
as he tells us that while he’s faster than Peter —
believes Mary’s testimony
having seen it for himself
but still don’t believe
that Jesus has been resurrected.
The dudes go home.
Mary Magdalene, though,
who didn’t leave Jesus until his death,
stays at the tomb.
Although our technologies have greatly improved,
and our understanding of the human body
is greatly enhanced
even people in the first century
knew that people
didn’t come back from the dead.
Jesus has said he will,
but that’s something brand new.
What’s not new
is sorrow after a death.
Mary Magdalene stays at the tomb,
weeping still,
mourning her friend, teacher, and savior’s
death.
When she looks into the tomb
she doesn’t just find
clean and folded
laundry.
Peter and John saw an empty tomb.
But when Mary looks in,
messengers from God are there.
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia!
John doesn’t write
that anyone came or went
yet there these angels are
inside the tomb
when Mary looks for herself.
They ask her why she’s weeping
and she tells them.
“They have taken away my Lord,
and I do not know
where they have laid him.”
Mary just wants to know
where isssss the body?
She turns to look out of the cave
and she’s asked again
“Woman, why are you weeping?”
I can hear the exhaustion
from women in the 21st century,
even with how far things have come
since the first century.
Mary has been to the tomb,
seen the stone rolled away,
and been doubted.
She’s looked in,
and been questioned.
She turns around,
and now it feels like an interrogation.
I think about the women in my life,
acting in good faith and tired of men doubting them
as Mary says,
“Look. if you took him,
just tell me where.
I’ll deal with the body.
That’s why I’m here.
But please stop asking me questions
while I am clearly grieving!”
Then Jesus invites her
to step into the song.
He knows her by name
the way he knows each of us,
and she sees that
Alleluia Christ is risen!
Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia!
In the Orpheus and Eurydice myth,
as he’s on his way out of the underworld,
Orpheus loses faith.
He turns around
and Eurydice —
and in Hadestown
all the other souls follow him —
is condemned to her and their eternity.
Jesus, in his full humanity
has had his doubts.
He’s asked that the cup pass from him,
as he prays in the garden.
He’s pleaded with God
as he’s felt abandoned
on the cross.
But unlike Orpheus,
when Jesus harrows hell,
he comes back.
Christ is risen from the dead,
trampling down death by death,
and upon those in the tombs,
bestowing life.
Jesus’ story isn’t over yet.
When Mary Magdalene recognizes him,
he tells her not to hold on
too tight.
Rather that just clinging to him,
he invites her to join the song.
Jesus tells Mary Magdalene
to join the song.
It’s an old song, and it’s been a sad song
and a tragedy.
More than those descriptors,
Jesus’ resurrection
is a part of God’s love song.
For us, it’s an old song.
But for the apostle to the apostles
it’s new.
“I have seen the Lord.”
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia!
When we say or sing or pray
“Christ is risen from the dead,
trampling down death by death
and upon those in the tombs
bestowing,”
we’re joining God’s song.
Jesus’ resurrection is God’s song
to fix what’s wrong.
Jesus’ resurrection is God’s song
to take what’s broken, make it whole.
Jesus’ resurrection is God’s song
so beautiful that it brings the world back in to tune,
and back in to time
all because of God’s love for us.