Discombobulated. It’s a word that’s fun to say, but it’s an uncomfortable way to be. You could use that word to describe the scripture readings for all of Easter week. They are stories of people being discombobulated by Jesus’ resurrection. Discombobulate means to “upset, confuse, totally set awry.” Psychologically, it happens when you learn something that, if believed, changes your life in a radical way.
I am a family therapist. I often see people discombobulated by bad news: a thirty year marriage is discombobulated by an incident of infidelity; a young woman is discombobulated as she remembers trauma from early childhood; a family is discombobulated as they realize that a son’s withdrawal from family is connected to a drug habit. When we are discombobulated we say, “How can this be true?”
Think of a time when you were discombobulated–when some event or knowledge sent your life in a new direction. When you are discombobulated, everything changes. You are in shock. Your mind doesn’t quite compute this new truth. It takes some time. You can also be discombobulated by good news. Good news, if it is different from what we thought, is also hard to incorporate into our psyche.
In today’s scripture we see multiple discombobulated people because of the good news of Jesus’ resurrection. The leaders, elders, and scribes were discombobulated. They were amazed at Peter and John. Not only had they done a sign and healed the man at the Beautiful Gate, Peter and John were also standing up to them. They were arguing with logic, authority, and determination. Yet Peter and John were also clearly “uneducated, ordinary men.” How could this be?
Peter and John had been discombobulated by Jesus’ resurrection and by Pentecost. Their fears and confusion were gone. Peter, who had had foot-in-mouth disease as long as he had been a disciple, boldly and effectively proclaims the wonderful, discombobulating news that Jesus is risen from the dead.
In the gospel we are reminded that when Mary Magdalene first told all the disciples about Jesus’ resurrection they didn’t believe her. You might remember that even Mary Magdalene was discombobulated enough that she didn’t recognize Jesus until he called her name.
The men on the way to Emmaus had been discombobulated by Jesus death, then by the stranger who explained it to them, then by realizing it was Jesus. But the gospel today says, “They returned and told the others, but they did not believe them either.”
But then, “when the Eleven were at table, Jesus appeared to them and rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart because they had not believed those who saw him after he had been raised.”
Seeing Jesus themselves pushed the discombobulation to a sufficient place that the necessary rearrangement of psyche and soul happened. They believed. But then Jesus discombobulated them again: “Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature.”
Are we discombobulated by Jesus’ resurrection?
I think I am not. I think through most of my life the story of Jesus’ resurrection has had the opposite effect on me: I have taken it for granted. I’ve always known about it, even when I grew up in a family that did not go to church or talk about God. Even when I began to develop a relationship with Jesus, the resurrection was just part of Christian culture. I knew and loved the Jesus of the parables and healings far more than the Jesus of the Passion and Resurrection. I took living in heaven forever with God for granted, too. It was just what I expected to do someday.
It was not until I was away from God for awhile that I BEGAN to believe how very important it is that Jesus rose from the dead. I still don’t think it entirely registers, because if it did, I would be absolutely amazed every time I “break the bread” and receive this risen Jesus in the Eucharist.
I would be filled with awe every time I hear the words, “I absolve you from your sin…” in Confession, as the Risen Jesus through the priest tells me that before He rose, Jesus made it possible for me to enter into His risen life, no matter how far I have strayed from God, how selfish or unbelieving I have been.
If I was sufficiently discombobulated by Jesus resurrection, I would do what Mary Magdalene, Peter, John, the men on the way to Emmaus, and the man healed at the Beautiful Gate did: I would tell The Great Story of Jesus with great joy and with amazement to everyone I meet.
Jesus died. By His death He conquered sin, evil, death—all that troubles our world. He did it by entering into its suffering and remaining obedient, trusting in God, loving, and faithful. When I can approach today by entering into its troubles (great or small) while remaining obedient, trusting in God, loving, and faithful—I can live in the wonder of the resurrection. Even in my small world, I am discombobulating evil by living in a Resurrected Way. I am proclaiming that God—through His love, through Jesus’ death and resurrection, and through sharing the Holy Spirit with us—lives a resurrected life here…today…now IN ME.
Wow! IF I could become truly discombobulated by the resurrection, I would “proclaim the Gospel to every creature” as I go about my ordinary life.
My Prayer Today:
Lord, help me be sufficiently discombobulated today by the resurrection that it makes a difference in how I work, play, talk, think, and live. By living discombobulated, may I also discombobulate others to “Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature.” Mary Magdalene, Peter, John, Disciples on the road to Emmaus, Man healed at the Beautiful Gate, pray for me! Guide me!
