" Cairete!" That's what Matthew says Jesus said to Mary Magdalene and the "other" Mary. " Cairete!"-"Greetings!" Except that's Greek--the language familiar to Matthew and the other Gospel writers. And Jesus didn't speak Greek, to the best of our knowledge. Other biblical trans­lators have offered such phrases as "Hail!" and "Be Glad!" and "Rejoice!" One even went so far as to suggest it could have been "How do you do!" Almost as if Jesus walked up to these two women in the midst of their mixed emotions of joy and fear and said, "Hi there! How are you?" Sort of a startling situation for them, isn't it? After all, they're on the way to a grave, fully expecting to find Jesus' body entombed behind a stone. And there he is, standing in front of them, saying "Greetings!", or "Hail!", or "Hi there! How are you?", or something else entirely.

So what did he say to these two women? Good question, since Jesus' native language of Ara­maic is pretty much lost to us. Only a relative handful of Samaritans huddled in the hills north of Jerusalem still speak anything like it, not counting a small band of Syrian Christians whose liturgical material is in a language closely akin to Aramaic. But there is still Hebrew. And those of us who have traveled to Israel learned the Hebrew phrase Boker Tow! -"Good Morning!" That's how Eugene Peterson and Edgar Goodspeed translate Matthew's " Cairete!" in their versions of this passage--"Good Morning!" One biblical commentator thinks that's a bit frivolous on Jesus' part. It may be that commentator was more comfortable with Matthew's Greek than he was with Jesus' Aramaic or Hebrew. Perhaps Peterson and Goodspeed come the closest to the original with their "Good Morning!"

"Greetings!" "Good Morning!" Doesn't that strike you as a bit unusual, given the circumstances? I'd expect Jesus to say a little bit more than a simple "Good Morning!" I'd anticipate he might begin with a simple explanation of what's going on here. You know, Jesus could sort of ease into this rather awkward moment with some words like, "Mary & Mary, I know you're finding this a little difficult to believe, but let me attempt to explain..." A little difficult to believe!? Attempt to explain!? Maybe it's better Jesus just let it go with "Greetings!" or "Good Morning!"

After all, for close to a couple of thousand years now people have found this story more than a little difficult to believe. And all the books that have been published, and all the articles that have been written, and all the sermons that have been preached, attempting to explain how it did or didn't happen, or could or couldn't have happened, would probably fill the pews in most sanctuaries to overflowing. It's not likely that a few simple words of explanation from Jesus to these two women on the pathway are going to clear up this miracle for them, no more than all the words written and spoken since then have made it any more believable for many in our own time.

It's not just our 21st-century penchant for critical, scientific, rational proof that's at stake here. It's not just us and our time. The resurrection of Jesus from the dead was just as hard on the faith of first-century believers as it is on ours. Death has been around for a long time. First-century folk knew its face just as well as we do. In fact, they saw it more closely and intimately and frequently than we do in our hospitalized, sterilized, death-denying attempts to avoid the whole topic.

We might envy those who actually saw the resurrected Jesus. We may imagine it was much easier for them to believe. But while it is true that none of us will likely have the honor of actually bumping into Jesus in the flesh on the way to church this morning, it is also true that none of us helped to pull his lifeless body off the cross on Friday afternoon. None of us carried his limp, dead-weight, blood-stained, broken form into the barren tomb and wrapped it in a shroud. For those who had known the living, laughing, loving Jesus, there was no doubt in their mind that he was stone-cold dead. Believing that he could be truly alive again--not just some spiritual apparition, but a warm, living being--was an enormous act of faith for the first disciples.

Indeed, when the women reported that they had seen and spoken with the Risen Jesus, Luke tells us that the disciples thought they were talking nonsense--"...an idle tale." And when the news of Jesus' resurrection--the rumors of an empty tomb--began to circulate around the city, the Roman and Temple authorities got nervous. Having taken enormous efforts to seal the tomb and post guards so that Jesus' body could not be stolen, these officials now used these same guards to start spreading the rumor that body-snatching was exactly what had happened. The possibility that a genuine miracle had taken place was far too threatening, too incredible for those who had opposed Jesus and put him to death.

They did an excellent job spreading that doubt, however, for the rumor still circulates today--and not just among those outside of our faith. There are lots of church members who confess their faith in Christ, yet continue to suspect that the chief priests and the political leaders probably had the story straight. For these Christians the concept behind a risen Christ is perfectly acceptable, but the reality of an actual resurrection is just too outlandish to take literally.

We expect life and death to follow a certain set of rules and to meet certain rational criteria. Therefore, we scramble around trying to find alternative explanations for the empty tomb. Maybe the guards did fall asleep and some well-meaning disciples did come to take the body. Maybe Jesus wasn't really dead after all--only drugged, or in a coma, or hypnotized--and he came out of it and escaped the tomb. Maybe this was all part of some elaborate plan to prove Jesus' messianic nature.

But maybe, just maybe, all of our doubts and explanations are just plain wrong!

The resurrection, as the rock group U2's Bono puts it, was when "the universe exploded in one man's life." Easter is our spiritual supernova. We must experience it as the true miracle it is with­out trying to make it fit our expectations and, especially, our limitations. When we refuse to let the miracle be miraculous, when we try to crimp it and cramp it to fit our style, we find ourselves distorting everything that made up Jesus' life and ministry on earth. It is time to let the mystery shine.

So, for once and for all, let's quit analyzing Easter. Instead of looking for human explanations for the open tomb, let's look with awe at that mighty angel perched in front of it. Let us be so convinced of his presence that we see the misty vapors of angel's breath billowing from his mouth, as he tells the wondering women what has happened to Jesus. Let's walk with bold faithfulness through the tomb's open doorway, looking at its empty, uninhabited space. Then--perhaps just then--in the midst of our joy and fear and wonder, we too may hear that familiar voice saying "Cairete!"---"Greetings!", "Boker Tow!"---"Good Morning!", and falling to our knees in adoration and worship, shout the miracle: "He is Risen! He is Risen, Indeed!"