By: Rev. Malcolm G. Smith
This week, from Thursday through Monday, you will have the opportunity to come to the Cathedral and walk through the Easter story, starting with the Last Supper and ending with Jesus’ ascension. Excerpts of the text from the gospels will be displayed on signs, and in some places, there will be simple props to call to mind different elements of the story.
There is something powerful about moving through the story as we physically move in space. When spirits move from one place to another in the spiritual world it’s because they are experiencing a change of state (Arcana Coelestia 1379). The disciples went through huge changes of state over the course of those couple of days. Think of their state when Jesus was praying in the garden, versus when He was suddenly arrested, to when He was crucified, to when they came to the tomb and He was no longer there. When reading the gospels, those changes can all happen within a couple of verses. There’s something useful about moving to a different physical place as we reflect on those very different emotional and spiritual places.
Working through the story by physically walking can also be a powerful reminder that all the things mentioned in the gospels actually happened in real life — in time and space, in three dimensions, in this “real” world. Jesus lived here, walked here, breathed here, died here, and came back to life here. Somehow being outside can reinforce this reality. Many of the important parts of the Easter story happened outside and reflecting on them as we stand outside, breathing fresh air, can give us a different sense of what it might have been like to be there when these world-changing events actually took place.
The Lord once told a paralyzed man to take up his bed and walk (Mark 2:11) and the man immediately did so. The teachings for the New Church tell us that “to carry one’s bed and walk means, symbolically, to meditate on doctrine” (Apocalypse Revealed 137). This Easter Story Walk and this Easter season offer you a chance to take up what you know about Easter and walk with it, meditate on it, and (with the Lord’s help) go somewhere different with it than you’ve been able to go before.
To find out more information about the Easter Story Walk, visit brynathynchurch.org/easter-walk.