“‘Why do you seek the living one among the dead?

He is not here, but he has been raised.

Remember what he said to you while he was still in Galilee,

that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners

and be crucified, and rise on the third day.’

And they remembered his words.

Then they returned from the tomb

and announced all these things to the eleven

and to all the others.

The women were Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James;

the others who accompanied them also told this to the apostles,

but their story seemed like nonsense

and they did not believe them.

But Peter got up and ran to the tomb,

bent down, and saw the burial cloths alone;

then he went home amazed at what had happened.’”

Doesn’t the story seem like nonsense to all of us? A man, a teacher, a wonder worker, a rabbi, crucified by the occupation forces, dead as a doorknob for the world to see, laid in a cold tomb, disappears. Angels appear to some women and say that he has been raised. He said it would be so, but come on! Nothing like this has ever happened. Nothing so radical, so fantastic, so miraculous can even be conceived. It is nonsense. It is impossible. It must be a myth, a legend, a made up story. With our modern understanding of science, don’t we all doubt the veracity of such an account? Was it an hallucination? A conspiracy? A mass delusion? Was it a lie? 

At the south end of the Air Garden at the Air Force Academy stands a two ton bronze sculpture atop a twelve foot high marble base entitled the “Eagle and Fledglings Statue.” Inscribed in the marble below the outstretched wings of the mother eagle guarding her two offspring is a quote from Austin “Dusty” Miller, “Man's flight through life is sustained by the power of his knowledge.” We take as knowledge our own personal experience, that which is transmitted to us through education based on the authority of experts, facts that are verified by duplicated experiments among researchers using the scientific method, or probabilities based upon multiple sources attesting to the same occurrence. We recognize that knowledge is different than wisdom, what we do with knowledge. Don’t we all know someone who is incredibly smart and lost? Knowledge is also different than faith. The power of knowledge is also different than the power of faith. 

In the last two years of the pandemic, we have experienced the value and limitations of knowledge. Uncertainty plagued our actions, precaution guided our course, and science formed our response, but faith gave us purpose, a deeper sense of meaning, a confidence in the future, and hope in our grief. Belief in a risen savior gave us strength. Trust in our God, who raises the dead, gave us courage. St. Thomas Aquinas said, “To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.” How can we explain the resurrection of Jesus? They didn’t believe, but Peter ran to the tomb. He came away amazed. Awed? Is there something more than knowledge? Something more than wisdom? Is there faith? Is it all nonsense? Is the empty tomb a hoax or a sign? Is Jesus risen from the dead? What do you believe?