There is one pivotal event in the sacred story of Christianity which is crucial for understanding what it means to be a follower of Jesus. That is the resurrection of Jesus. The good news at the heart of the Christian message described in the New Testament is not that Jesus died but that Jesus died and was raised to new life.
As we look over Christian history, the prominence of the resurrection is found embedded in the ritual life of the church. For reasons that are complex to explain, over the last century or so, prominence has been given to the suffering and death of Jesus. Yet, the ritual marking of the Christian year marks Lent as a period of a forty-day fast culminating with the remembrance of Jesus death on Good Friday while the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus is a fifty-day celebration from Easter Sunday to Pentecost. The feast was considered so much more important than the fast the fourth-century patriarch of the early church, John Chrysostom, proclaimed in his famous Easter sermon that even if you didn’t keep the fast for a day, you are welcome to share in the feast of the resurrection.
Most of us have a hard time knowing what to make of someone brutally killed as an enemy of the state suddenly coming back to life. It seems like a fable. Many scholars have pointed out that this was a common narrative in ancient history about various deities: that they died and came back to life. Some suggest that the story of the resurrection of Jesus may just be a rhetorical device meant to draw the hearers of the story into what for ancient people was a familiar kind of narrative. Other scholars, John Dominick Crossan in particular, have suggested that the body of Jesus was most likely left on the cross to rot as was the Roman practice for enemies of the state. If that’s true, the body of Jesus could have been eaten by wild dogs and birds of prey. Ultimately, I do not know what actually happened. I wasn’t there.
What I do know is this: the dogmatic belief in the physical resurrection of the body of Jesus is not of particular importance to me. What is of crucial importance to me is the experience of the resurrection of Jesus in my life as a source of renewal and transformation.
Consider the New Testament writer Paul. He never actually met Jesus. Early in his life, he actively persecuted Christians. Not only was he insistent that Christians (then considered a Jewish sect) not participate in prayer and study at synagogues, but as a Roman citizen, he filed charges against Christians and advocated for their capital punishment as enemies of the state. Seemingly out of nowhere, he had a significant spiritual experience that caused him to fundamentally change. He spent over a decade studying at the direction of a man known to be a wise follower of Jesus. Because of the depth of his experience, he called himself an apostle. The term apostle had been reserved for the twelve men who were followers of Jesus during his lifetime. It can be said that Paul experienced the resurrection of Jesus in his own life. The resurrection wasn’t an abstract doctrine. Instead, the resurrection was what happened to Paul.
I find that the resurrection of Jesus is not so much about the historic Jesus of Nazareth having once been dead and later coming back to life but that it is about my own experience of moving from death to life. As a follower of the teachings of Jesus, I have discovered that what has been dead within me can be transformed into something new and life-giving. Further, the ways in which I have limited growth in my life can become areas which are profoundly renewed with new life. Areas of my life which have been dormant can sprout with newness in ways I never expected. For me, this is the heart of the resurrection of Jesus.
The tomb that is empty is a dark place in me. Through the resurrection of Jesus, the beautiful light of the dawn has illuminated places that had grown cold. Through that process, I find the words recorded in the gospel attributed to Luke in the story about the followers of Jesus who met him on the road to Emmaus as resonating within me: Are not our hearts burning within us and lighted with fire? For me, that is the resurrection of Jesus.
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Yes, I agree that the Resurrected Jesus is far more important than the historicaal/scientific/videotapable event that third day. That He IS risen is more important than that He WAS raised.
A parallel that I believe is that his 2nd Coming is not at some hour-and-minute in the future, but is his “appearances” (eg. Emmaus) when it dawns on us that he is right here, living among us in the mystery of brokenness, love, self-denial, the enveloping love of our Creator (Hammarskjold’s “yes” to the universe), and that guy calling you an idiot on Facebook. These “manifestations” require a jerking-open of hearts and minds to a truth that is hidden from eyes that do not see and ears that do not hear. Thank you for this.
Joris: Thanks for your comment. One of my curmudgeonly theological moments happens during Easter Season when I drive past a church sign saying, “Christ has risen.” My response is, “No, no, no! Christ IS Risen!” If the mystery of the Christ isn’t risen today and remains just an event locked in time, then the new life of the resurrection isn’t for us. So, indeed: Christ is Risen! And that’s the mystery that draws us into new life. Again, thanks for replying. Lou