The sun is up, the
day is bright, crossing lawns of green and blue and purple, and I am
whistling hymns into the wind. Thrust forward by the gust. Launched
into my daily lurching.
Oh who am I…?
This
marathon, this long hike, with shoulders back and head upraised. Eyes
up into the sky. The wind will not relent. Twenty, thirty, forty-five
mile per hour gusts. Tree limbs down and unsecured porch chairs sent
flying. Holy Saturday’s sussuras in the pines have become jubilant
sibilants and jangling wind chimes. Clanging gongs and cracking
branches.
Resounding
all the day Hosannas to their king…
There
are women shouting, swearing from their door and dogs snarling on the
steps. There are white nationalists flags ripping away from their
swaying staffs. What makes this rage and spite? “You know what
you’re saying, boy? You know what you’re saying?”
Crucify
is all their breath...
And
what has changed? The weather (if not the wind)… The world is still
at war. The fires still flame. Love to the loveless shown. And am I
so fickle, so changeable?
But
oh my friend, my friend in deed...
Who at my need his life
would spend?
- My Song Is Love Unknown - Samuel Crossman 1629-1683
Why are you
weeping? The mystery and
longing of this morning revealed and
unrecognized, misunderstood “if you have
taken him...”
Ordinary
extraordinary from the grave reach out but do
not grasp further on further
into mystery truly risen into
unsettled perfection flesh and wonder
spirit rise
Why are you
weeping? The mystery and
longing of this day now named and
recognized, realized “I have seen the
Lord.”
How can I celebrate
the resurrection when Iran is under bombs? When Venezuela is
being plundered? When Gaza is little
but rubble? When Ukraine is
burning? When citizens are
shot in the street? When immigrant
children are ripped from the arms of their mothers? I don’t know. I
don’t know. But he is risen. Indeed.
Yesterday’s
jagged thunder and lightning fled but the wind remained, and it was
cruel. I tried to find my way to the tomb and to silence from
unnecessary words. Stumbling down
broken steps through susurrant
pines and buildings with
blackout security precautions and private
property cameras. I heard screaming
ambulance sirens on hidden highways. I smelled
marijuana. I walked by braying
dogs at cemetery gates and death and Hades followed. I tried to find my
way to the tomb and to silence.
Good Friday and the
world has slipped from time. I spent the day walking in the wind and
in the rain. Walking late and overtime in the cold.
They took charge of
Jesus, and carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the
skull. Look into the dust of it. The scent and tang of earth upon the
air. Dust to dust.
“Happy Easter!”
someone shouted from their porch as I passed. Golgotha.
Why do they…? Why
do I…? But prove all things by the strength of love. This love.
Digged deep and love laid low.
“He is risen!”
I replied but it was too early. And there was no one there where they
crucified him.
I must say, right up front, that I do not understand the
resurrection of Jesus. I believe it, I gratefully accept it, I receive it in
faith – but I do not understand it. It is beyond our comprehension. It is
outside of all human experience. There were no eyewitnesses to it. It cannot be
replicated in a laboratory. I do not know what to make of it
But I am, fully, unabashedly, grateful for what it makes of me.
And yet, the Gospel of Matthew makes the story even more difficult to
comprehend, if that were even possible. If the supernatural resurrection of
Jesus weren’t enough, Matthew also describes a number of concurrent phenomena
that threaten to boggle our already reeling minds. At the moment of Jesus’
death on the cross, the veil of the temple in Jerusalem was torn in two from
top to bottom, the earth shook violently enough to split rocks and to burst
open a number of tombs – from which the bodies of many holy men and women who
had died were raised. And these resurrected saints went into the city of Jerusalem
and seen by many.
We could almost explain them with a naturalistic explanation – an earthquake
(to which the region of Jerusalem is prone as it is located along a fault line known as the Dead Sea Transform (also called the Syrian-African Rift)) shook
the area at about the time of Jesus’ death. Damage from this earthquake caused
the veil in the temple to fall, and it fell it was torn in two. The earthquake
caused rocks to fall from the steep cliffs around Jerusalem and they were
shattered on the ground below, and tombs – which were carved into the stony
hills of the region – were cracked open and… the bodies of dead saints were …..
Yeah. That’s where a naturalistic explanation falters. There’s no natural way
to explain the revivification and reanimation of numerous dead bodies. It is a
fantastical event, to be sure, so far outside the realm of normal, natural,
human experience as to be almost unbelievable.
Did it happen? Did it literally, historically happen just this way?
If so, there is a curious lack of historical evidence for it. There is no
physical evidence of Jesus’ resurrection, either of course. But where one
raised, and resurrected body could be denied, discredited, and ignored, where
one resurrection could be overlooked, it seems like a mass evacuation of graves
in the area around Jerusalem would have attracted some attention, that it would
have been noticed (by someone other than Matthew)[i].
“…Many interpreters balk at the thought of so many risen dead being seen in
Jerusalem. Such a large scale phenomenon should have left some traces in Jewish
and / or secular history” (Brown “Eschatological” 64). But there’s no trace of this mass
resurrection in Jewish writings, or in secular histories. Nothing in Josephus
(the Jewish historian). Nothing in Roman government reports. Nothing in the
Talmud. Nothing.
And if it did occur – literally and physically just this way – we might have
expected the other New Testament writers to mention it, but they don’t. Jesus’
resurrection is there, of course; it is the central theme of the New Testament,
without which the whole thing would be in vain (1 Corinthians 15: 14), but
there’s nothing in the writings of Paul, in the other thee gospels, in the
other epistles or in the Revelation given to John on Patmos about these walking
dead.[ii]
This small sliver from the gospel of Matthew is the only place where we read
about the raising of the many dead holy ones at the time of Jesus’
resurrection.[iii]
And though the “argument from silence” is not the strongest argument to be
made, we do wonder why, if many holy ones were raised up from their tombs and
were seen by many people in the city of Jerusalem, why nothing of them is said
anywhere else. Maybe the bodies of many saintly women and men were restored to
life and were seen walking around the streets of Jerusalem in the days after
Jesus’ resurrection, but if they did, no one except for Matthew seems to have
said anything about it.
But what if we were to read these phenomena not as literal, physical,
historical happenings, but as poetic symbols of what’s happening in Jesus’
death and resurrection. There is symbolism here (Barclay 409) and we should
take note of it.
Jesus’ death and resurrection is such a powerful event that the effects of it
are felt throughout the whole of creation. There is darkness in the heavens
(Matthew 27: 45) as the sun is dimmed for several hours. There is a tremendous
shaking of the earth (Matthew 27: 51).
And the underworld is opened, releasing those who were dead back into
the realm of the living. The heavens, the earth, and what is under the earth
are all affected by Jesus’ death and resurrection.
And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient
to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has
highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at
the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on
earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2: 8 – 11
NKJV)
These are apocalyptic, eschatological symbols here – signs
of the end, symbols of powerful judgement, but also symbols of powerful grace.
Darkness and earthquakes – these are your standard biblical expressions of the
kind of judgments to be seen at the end. The prophets spoke this way: of the
darkening of the sun and the falling of the stars and of earthquakes shaking
the land… These were signs of judgment and wrath at the end. But this terrible
and tragic ending (Jesus’ death), is also the beginning of something wonderful
and new (Jesus’ resurrection) – which is why we also have the resurrection of
these holy ones. They are the symbols of Christ’s resurrection and the
resurrection life given by Christ to his followers.
It is the resurrection power of God’s action that is important here, not the
identification of those raised saints who were seen in the city afterwards.
(Brown “Death” 1126) It is the fact that the way is open, and that access to God
has been made possible through Jesus’ death and resurrection that is important,
not which of the Temple veils Matthew intended to describe[iv].
I may not understand Jesus’ resurrection – it is outside human experience, it
stands without eyewitnesses, it cannot be repeated or duplicated. But I
accepted it and receive it with thanks and praise to God. I definitely do not
understand Matthew’s description of these fantastic phenomena, but I accept
them too, as symbols of the mighty work of God. Jesus’ death and resurrection
tears the fabric of the universe, even as it tears the fabric of the temple
veil, shakes the foundations of the universe even as it shakes the rocks and
hills of Jerusalem. And Jesus’ death and resurrection brings life to those who
are dead. I may not understand, but I accept it and receive it with thanks and
praise. And I say, along with the Roman centurion, who had seen the earthquake
and all that was taking place, “in truth this man was – and is – son of God.”
Barclay, William. The Gospel of Matthew
Volume 2. Philadelphia, PA: The Westminster Press. 1958. Print.
Brown, Raymond E. The Death of the Messiah: Volume Two.
New York, NY: Doubleday. 1994. Print.
Brown, Raymond E., “Eschatological Events Accompanying the Death of Jesus,
Especially the Raising of the Holy ones from their Tombs” Faith and the
Future: Studies in Christian Eschatology. NY: Paulist Press, 1994. Print.
[i]
Yes. I know the author of the Gospel of Matthew (whoever he was) was not an
eyewitness to any of the events in his gospel
[ii]
There were not zombies, either. (Though that might make for a great story…)
[iii]
And there’s debate: were these saints raised as Jesus died, or were they
resurrected after? Matthew is a little ambiguous on the point.
[iv]
And there is debate about which of the two or three veils Matthew intended.
(Brown “Death” 1110 – 1113)
It may be difficult for us to admit or to accept, but it may
not be possible for us to fully understand what is happening in this story, or
what was intended by the one who recorded the oral traditions about Jesus into
the form in which we have received them. Too much has been left between the
lines, too much has been assumed. Relevant details that were still known and
simply understood by the audience of the oral traditions were not recorded and
we are left attempting to fill in the gaps. (Albright 251) The gospel writers
rarely describe Jesus’ motives. The gospels give us his words and actions, but
leave it to us to interpret, to figure it out; it’s up to us to supply the
meaning. But we can only speculate. (Johnson 500)
Why did Jesus go to Jerusalem? Did he go intending to
provoke a political conflict in the holy city? Did he go to challenge the
religious leaders? Did he arrange the rental of the donkey with it owner
beforehand, or was this an act of spontaneous generosity? Was Jesus making an
open declaration of his messiahship after keeping it a secret for so long, or
was that something only understood afterwards in 20/20 hindsight? The question
asked by the people of Jerusalem that day is still with us: “Who is this?”
And when was that day? As recorded, this triumphal entry
into Jerusalem took place in the spring just ahead of the celebration of pesach,
that is the Passover celebration. But many of the details (the few details that
are recorded for us) are connected to the autumnal festival of sukkot –
the celebration of Booths or Tabernacles. The palm branches (Johnson 502), the
shouting of “hosanna,” (Pope 291) and the hallel of Psalm 118
(quoted in Matthew’s story) were all part of the sukkot celebration. Did
Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem actually happen in the fall rather than
in the spring? And if so why did the gospel writers move it? If so, what does
that change mean?
And that word, “Hosanna,” what does it mean? As used
by Matthew it seems to be a word of praise in a cry of honor. “Hosanna
to the Son of David! … Hosanna in the highest heavens!” But the Hebrew
word is not an expression of praise, it is an imperative – a command: “Save us,
now!” (Pope 291) Of the 31 times it is used in the Hebrew Bible (the Old
Testament) 29 of those are addressed to the deity – to God, and the others are
addressed to the King – God’s anointed agent. (Pope 290). Are we to understand
that the people on that morning in Jerusalem were crying out to God and to
God’s anointed one, the Messiah, to Jesus of Nazareth, for deliverance and
salvation? “Save us, O Son of David! Save us, O Highest Heaven!”
Jesus was relatively unknown in Jerusalem. He’d spent most of his time in the
region of Galilee. The gospel of John records at least four trips to the Holy
City, but the synoptics (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) describe only this final
visit. Did the owner of the donkey and her foal somehow know “the lord”? Did
they make arrangements for Jesus to use the animals? Did the shouting crowds gathered with palm
branches recognize and acclaim Jesus as their king? Did Jesus ride upon the
donkey and the foal specifically and deliberately in order to fulfill the
ancient prophecy – reading it like a checklist of tasks to accomplish or did
his actions (intended or no) fulfill those words? Or was it only applied after
the fact?
It may be difficult for us to accept or to admit, but it may not be possible
for us to fully understand what is happening here. Who is this? Who is this?
And what does he want?
He comes riding into Jerusalem (whether in the fall or in
the spring) as the victorious king – but this is a strange king and a strange
victory. He is victorious with no shot fired and no swords drawn. A king proceeded
and followed by palms instead of spears and pilgrim praise instead of warrior
shouts. He is a king in lowly pomp (Milman). A king who banishes chariots and
horses from Ephraim and Jerusalem, a king who puts away forever the bow and
arrow and proclaims peace to the nations (Zechariah 9: 9 – 10).
This is not the kind of king we’d understand, or the victory
we would expect. We’d anticipate that the king would launch a round of Tomahawk
missiles at his enemies, launch another wave of Hellfire attack drones. We
would assume that it would not be long before he sent troops to invade and put
boots on the ground. The king we understand would not ride in lowly pomp, but
would travel in comfort and in style fitting his status and his office, with
dignity and honor and swelling pride.
Who is this? Who is this strange victorious king that does everything backwards
and wrongway round? He is Jesus the
prophet king of Nazareth. He is the one who saves us from our sin, from our
despair, from our death, the one who saves us from the miserable circumstances
of our lives. We wave our branches and we shout hosanna! Rescue us! Save
us from our anxiety, fear, poverty, and illness. Save us! Rescue us from our
debts and doubts, our ignorance, enslavement, oppression and addiction. We
shout hosanna! in praise and in supplication Save us, Son of David, we
praise you. Rescue us, God of highest heaven, we praise you.
Who is this? This is Jesus the prophet king – who wins by losing, lives by
dying, and defeats his enemies with love and forgiveness. Who is this? This is
Jesus of Nazareth, the prophet king, who brings peace to the nations and peace
to our lives.
Albright W. F. & C.S. Mann, Matthew: Introduction,
Translation and Notes. Garden City, NY: Doubleday and Company, Inc. 1971.
Print.
Johnson, Sherman E. “Matthew: Exegesis” The Interpreter’s
Bible Volume 7. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press. 1951. Print.
"For which is the greater, one who sits at a table, or one who serves? Is it not the one who sits at the table? But I am among you as one who serves." Luke 22: 27
We call it Palm Sunday and in Christian churches around the world the faithful
are celebrating Jesus’ ‘triumphal entry’ into the city of Jerusalem by waving
palm branches and shouting “hosanna!” Palm branches were considered a symbol of
victory and triumph. When Simon Maccabeus defeated the Jewish people’s Gentile
enemies and recaptured the city of Jerusalem, “the Jews entered the city amid a
chorus of praise and the waving of palm branches, with lutes, cymbals, and
zithers, with hymns and songs, to celebrate Israel’s final riddance of a
formidable enemy.” (1 Maccabees 13:51 Revised English Bible) In the Revelation
given to John on the Island of Patmos he saw: “a vast throng, which no one
could count, from all races and tribes, nations and languages, standing before
the throne and the Lamb. They were robed in white and had palm branches in
their hands, and they shouted aloud: ‘Victory to our God who sits on the
throne, and to the Lamb!’” (Revelation 7: 9 -10 Revised English Bible)
The word Hosanna is “a liturgical
word used in Judaism and Christianity that means ‘save, we pray’” (Cameron). It
was usually shouted by the Jewish people as part of the autumnal Sukkot celebration – the Feast of
Tabernacles. Once a day the worshippers would walk around the altar and shout,
“Save us now, we beseech thee, O Lord, send prosperity!”(Psalm 118:25) On the
seventh day of the festival, this shout was repeated seven times-known as the Hoshana Rabbah-the Great Hosanna. This Hosanna ritual “combines the idea of
praising realized victories over nations and sympathetic prayers for salvation”
(Avery-Peck qtd. in Cameron).[i]
It also makes a nice connection to Jesus himself as his name in Hebrew is Yeshua meaning “Yahweh is Salvation,” because
“he is the one who is to save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21 New
Jerusalem Bible) Hosanna! Save us! Jesus! Our salvation!
But, again, In Luke’s telling of this story, there are no shouts of “Hosanna!”[ii]
Suddenly our “Palm Sunday” begins to feel a little empty-no waving palms, no “Hosannas!”
Compared to the other gospel accounts of Jesus’ entry into the city of
Jerusalem, Luke’s version seems relatively restrained, almost (but not quite)
subdued. Luke may have quieted the noise and hubbub of Jesus’ entrance somewhat,
but he has not entirely softened or quieted the story, not by any means.
In fact, we find the pilgrim crowds following Jesus that morning joyfully
praising God at the top of their voices, praising him for all the miracles and
works of power that they’d seen and experienced in Jesus of Nazareth. They are
shouting in full voice:
“Blessed is who is coming as King in the
name of the Lord,
peace in heaven and glory in the highest heavens!”
Luke may have eliminated the waving palms and the shouts of Hosanna but there’s still a lot of
excitement here. But not everyone in the crowd was quite so thrilled. There
were some Pharisees in the crowd who seemed to be a little irritated by Jesus
and his crowd of followers. They urged Jesus to restrain, reprove, and rebuke them.
Luke doesn’t describe their motivation for us. It could be that they were fearful of a Roman
backlash. The crowds were hailing Jesus as a King, something that the Roman
occupiers could have interpreted as the beginnings of political uprising. Perhaps
the Pharisees feared a violent Roman response to the excited crowd.
It could also be that the Pharisees were concerned for Jesus’ health and
safety. I know that we’re somewhat conditioned to thinking of the Pharisees as
the bad guys; that’s the way their usually depicted in the gospels, as the
enemies and opponents of Jesus. But earlier in Luke’s gospel (13:31) we read of
the Pharisees warning Jesus of Herod’s threats against his life. It could be
that the Pharisees were warning Jesu for his own safety.
And, of course, it could be that the Pharisees here are expressing their own
personal disagreement, disgust, and disbelief. As I said, Luke doesn’t describe
their motives for us. So take your pick. It could be any of these or maybe something
else altogether. Whatever their motivations
might have been, Jesus ignores their demand that he silence his followers. He
tells them that if his followers are silenced, then the very stones would begin
to sing and shout the praises of God.
There is a certain inevitability here. “Attention must be paid,” (Miller Act 1,
Part 8). Praises must be sung. “Somethings simply must be said; the disciples
are expressing what is ultimately and finally true. God will provide a witness
though every mouth be stopped; opposition to Christian witness cannot succeed,
and the truth will come out. It cannot be silenced” (Craddock).
The Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. said that “the arc of the moral universe
bends towards justice,” (King) and, I would add, towards praise. The two are
linked. With justice will come praise for the just and holy God. Blessed the
one who comes in the name of the King, bringing peace in heaven and on earth
for those who he favors. (Luke 2:14)
In Luke’s retelling of the “triumphal entry” there may be neither waving palms
nor shouts of Hosanna- save us now-
but we have an intimation of the inevitable and glorious end: Praise and peace
and justice in the Kingdom of God.
Palm Sunday (with or without the palms) is a ray of bright sun before the dark,
tenebrous gloom of Good Friday and the silence of Holy Saturday. There is an
awkwardness to our praise today because we know we still must go through the
passion-that is, pain- the suffering, and blood, and death.
Ride on, ride on in majesty
in lowly pomp ride on to die. (Milman)
But this is not the end. The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends,
not toward suffering and death but towards justice and praise. And the universe
is bent towards these wonderful ends because of Jesus’ death and resurrection.
O Christ the triumphs now begin
o’er captive death and conquered sin. (Milman)
So today, instead of the traditional palm waving and “Hosanna” shouting, we will shout with the crowds:
“Blessed is he who is coming
as King in the name of the Lord.
Peace in heaven
and glory in the highest heaven
Glory to God in the highest heaven
and on earth, peace for those he favors.”
We move inevitably towards justice and peace and praise because of Jesus’
triumph over sin and death.
Cameron, Daniel J. “Hosanna” The Lexham Bible Dictionary.
Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2015. Print.
Milman, Henry H. “Ride On, Ride On, in Majesty” The
Salvation Army Songbook, The Salvation Army, London.
[i]
Because of the odd combination of details from the autumnal Sukkot celebration with Jesus’
springtime entrance into the city of Jerusalem just before Passover, some
scholars have suggested that his triumphal entry occurred during Sukkot and that that story has been
combined with the events of Holy Week.
John Dominic Crossan doesn’t believe the triumphal entry (or, as he calls it,
the “antitriumphal” entry) “ever actually happend, except as later symbolic
retrojection. (Crossan 128-9)
[ii]
In fact, Luke has eliminated almost all Semitic “barbarisms” from his gentile
oriented gospel. (Gilmour 3-4)
Though we celebrate with shouts and psalms
still I have a few lingering qualms,
for what does Saint Luke say
of that first Palm Sunday?
He says naught of the waving of palms.
Jesus went into the Temple then,
drove out the merchants trading within.
He cited scripture there,
“My house should be for prayer
but you’ve made it a foul bandits’ den.”
I am looking ahead to Sunday; like preachers everywhere I feel the pressure of
the Resurrection Sunday sermon. It’s a
big deal. So I’m looking at the text
from John 20: 1- 8. And the first thing
that strikes me as I read it today is “the tomb”: seven times in this short
little pericope and not one mention of the cross. It’s a small thing. I know that.
It’s a small thing, but it’s very important. The gospel of John does
mention the cross in earlier verses-but the cross is not the important thing.
“In the Eastern
Church, indeed, is wont to gather about the manger, feeling the incarnation to
be central; and the Western Church lingers upon Calvary, taking the cross as
its symbol, and finding in God’s sacrifice for us in Christ its chief
inspiration and compulsion. But the N.T.
itself keeps exalting first of all, most of all, last of all, in the empty
grave, finding in that the proofs of Jesus’ victory and that God is really over all, and that evil and sin,
impregnable and ineradicable though they seem, are beaten and doomed. And if we do not press on there, that is at
best to believe a gallant tale that may indeed shame us somewhat out of what we
are, even be able to constrain us toward better things, but it is not the
gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (Gossip 789-790).
As I think about our worship service on Resurrection Sunday, I’m also thinking
about what hymns and songs we will sing. Yet as I look through our hymnal-The
Salvation Army songbook has an obvious disparity between songs about the Manger, the Cross, and the Tomb. We have
22 songs in our songbook about the Birth of Jesus, and 36 about the “atoning
work” – that is-the cross, and only 15 about the resurrection and ascension – the
Tomb. [i]
Gossip, Arthur John. “The Gospel According to St. John:
Exposition” in Luke; John Volume 8 of
The Interpreter’s Bible. Nashville.
Abingdon-Cokesbury Press, 1952.
[i] We expect a revised, updated version of our
songbook very soon – this summer maybe… Will we see this mistaken emphasis corrected?
The claim is sometimes made that the bible cannot be trusted, that the gospel
stories of Jesus were just that – stories – stories created and told and retold
and exaggerated and expanded by the leaders of the early church. The claim is even sometimes made that the
person –Jesus of Nazareth – never actually existed in history. After all, we have no archaeological evidence
that he existed, he left no writings, founded no school, never met with
emperors or kings. The allegation is
that the early Christians created him from bits and pieces of the stories told
about other legendary figures and their tales of heroic exploits.
These claims are not generally acknowledged by scholars. Even those who are
critical of the Christian faith generally accept that Jesus of Nazareth was a
historical person – that he lived and preached and taught in the region of
Galilee - that he drew crowds of
followers and disciples who followed him – that he was believed to have done
strange and miraculous deeds (even those who may not believe that he did
miracles, will concede that he was believed to have done them) – that he went
to Jerusalem – where he was arrested – and executed by the Roman
authorities. But this is about as far as
the historians can take us. The tomb
and the resurrection itself are not accessible to us.
During Good Friday services we often sing the old spiritual “Were You there
when They Crucified My Lord?” And, using
our imaginations and the gospel accounts we can, in some sense, put ourselves
there as they crucified our Lord, as they nailed him to the tree… and it causes
us to tremble, tremble, tremble. We can
in our minds hear the groans and screams of the dying men, the wailing of the
women, the jeers and taunts of the crowd.
We can feel the wind, and the descending cool as the darkness falls upon
the land. We can imagine the weight of
his body as he is taken down from the cross and laid into the tomb. But when they ask “Were you there when he
rose up from the grave?” the answer has to be, “No.”
No one was there. No one saw it. There were no observers, no eyewitnesses. And even the testimony of the gospels that we
have of the events after the resurrection is not without contradiction and
conflicted accounts. Were there two
women, or five, or more? Were there
soldiers or not? Was there an angel or
not? Were there two angels?
And the resurrection event is not a repeatable event. It cannot be recreated in a scientific laboratory. Those stories of people who have died for a
period of time, their hearts have stopped beating, but with skill and modern
technology doctor have been able to bring them back from death – this is not a
resurrection. This is a resuscitation.
Those who have brought back from death in this manner go back to the
same sort of life they had before. They
still have the same body and they will eventually die again.
Resurrection is a different kind of event.
When Jesus came up from the tomb it was not a mere resuscitation. He may have had the same body – marked with
the nail prints in his hands and feet, and the spear gash in his side – but his
body was changed. It was different. He
died once for death, and then no more.
Death would never again touch that body.
So there is no historical evidence of the resurrection. There is no eyewitness testimony. And even the circumstantial evidence has its
problems (contradictions and conflicting accounts…). The resurrection cannot be repeated or
recreated in a scientific laboratory or hospital operating room. The resurrection is inaccessible to us. If someone were to say to us “prove that Jesus was resurrected on that Sunday
morning!” we will have to admit that we
cannot. It is like the hymn says of God,
“in light inaccessible, hid from our eyes.”
Yet this is not said to dismiss, denigrate, or discredit the resurrection of
Jesus. It is the central tenant of our
faith. As the apostle Paul said, ‘if he wasn’t raised, then thing whole this is
wasted air…’
The resurrection is inaccessible to us…except by faith.
And I believe it. I receive it with great joy, and, like those
who went to the tomb that morning, with some fear. Fear – because we like certainty. We want to be able to show cause. We like Newtonian physics where cause and
effect, motion and force, and direction and speed can be worked out with mathematical
precision. We would like to be able to
do this with the resurrection. It is,
after all the central point of our faith!
But we cannot. It exists as an
event beyond the realm of space and time and scientific certainty.
It’s not a song that I’ve ever really appreciated (honestly, I think it overly
schmaltzy…) – it was one of those songs that the ‘old people’ of the church always
wanted to sing. But it captures
something of this:
I serve a risen Savior
He’s in the world
today.
I know that He is
living,
Whatever men may say.
I see His hand of
mercy;
I hear His voice of
cheer;
And just the time I
need Him
He’s always near.
He lives, He lives, Christ Jesus lives
today!
He walks with me and talks with me along life’s narrow way.
He lives, He lives, salvation to impart!
You ask me how I know He lives?
He lives within my heart.
I cannot prove it. I cannot show it. But I believe it, and I receive it with great
joy (even if that joy is mixed with some doubt and fear.) I can see how the resurrection event changed
the lives of those disciples who followed.
I can see how the resurrection motivated the early church. I can see how Christianity has been a force
for good in the world (even as I, with fear and trembling, admit that
Christianity has faltered and erred far too often…)
I can know and trust and receive this resurrection of Jesus – and the
resurrection that he gives to each of us, this new life, this new full life,
this new and eternal life – but only by faith.
I cannot prove it. I cannot show
it. We still get sick. We still endure hardship. We still die. The resurrection of Jesus (and that promised
to us in him) isn’t visible or accessible to our eyes.
But we can receive it by faith – and receive it with great joy. He is risen!
He is risen, indeed!
