That Great Gettin' Up Morning

What happened in Jesus' borrowed tomb two thousand years ago? It's a question that has haunted men and women over the course of every generation and in virtually every part of our world.

Did the disciples lie?

Perhaps they hallucinated.

Roman soldiers stole the body.

Dogs ate the corpse.

Maybe Jesus never really died? He came close but the coolness of the tomb (a.k.a. the swoon theory) allowed for his body to recover. Jesus, after 48 hours walked away from the tomb (don't ask about the large stone).

It would not make sense for the disciples to lie. To declare the carpenter from Nazareth "Kyrios" was to put yourself on shaky ground with the powers of Rome.

If they hallucinated, they convinced others of the hallucination as well.

Roman soldiers were punishable by death for the body gone missing. Remember the Roman official who wanted to kill himself when Paul was busted out of prison? Why did he want to kill himself? He failed his primary mission and knew the consequences that faced him.

"Dogs eating the corpse" of Jesus (the viewpoint of noted scholar John Dominic Crossan) seems to me a logical leap from the amazingly similar canonical accounts contained within the pages of Christian scriptures.

I believe in Easter because I believe that if God can cut the grand canyon, paint the sky blue, inhabit the womb of a pre-teen named Mary, create the sun, form the giraffe--if God can do all of the previous, I believe he can step into his own story ("rupturing the narrative" as literature scholars like to say), show us what it means to be human, take on the evil of religion and society, only to transform by the Spirit's power overwhelming the power of darkness, sin and death. In short, if God can do this (everything I see around me), I know he can do that (walk away from a borrowed Jerusalem tomb).

I believe in Easter Sunday because I believe the disciples, women and men, had everything to lose and nothing to gain in declaring Jesus' victory. They spent the rest of their lives with Resurrection on their sleeves, in their hearts, beaming from their eyes.

Generally speaking: Post-modern Christians believe in the resurrection because they trust Jesus. Modern Christians believe in Jesus because they've intellectually accepted the tenets of resurrection (or at least the scientific possibility). I find myself going back and forth at different seasons in the faith journey.

Something happened Easter Sunday. I choose to believe that God overcame the greatest shackle known to man: death. It's a life-altering story. A story too good to not be true.

Easter

Since eighth grade, I've collected quotes. Here are a few that have been on my mind lately. 

I love this quote from Bono. "I'm a believer, but religion is the thing when God, like Elvis, has left the building. But when God is in the house, you get something else. I'm happy in a Catholic cathedral or a tent show down in the South with gospel music."

I like this quote from Dr. King. "Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted."

I am still trying to fully understand this line from Annie Dillard. I really like Annie Dillard. "So once in Israel love came to us incarnate, stood in the doorway between two worlds, and we were all afraid."

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I re-told the story of the resurrection in John's Gospel four times today (three times at Rochester Church of Christ and once at Christ Church: Macomb). Here's the thing that strikes me every time: In the Gospel of John, women are key characters in the narrative. Jesus' mother initiates his public ministry (ch.2); Jesus reveals his true identity to a scandalous woman (ch. 4); Jesus stands up to the religious power-brokers who want justice over mercy (ch. 8); and Jesus tells Mary and Martha "I am the Resurrection and the Life," (ch. 11). 

We should not be surprised that Mary Magdalene is tending the tomb (ch. 20). She does not equate an empty tomb with resurrection. Yet, she wants to remain near Jesus, because, he is "the Lord."

Jesus comes to her as a gardener. He speaks her name and she instantly knows who stands in her midst.

Unlike the men of power (Pharisees, Sadducees, Herodians), and the men concerned with reputation (disciples)--the women in Jesus' day had nothing to lose and everything to gain. Perhaps, that kind of sociological "thing" happens today. 

But those are the questions we usually avoid asking. 

Jesus Was Not Russian

One of the benefits of doing my grad work at Lipscomb (in Nashville) was access to the Divinity Library at Vanderbilt, just a few miles down the road. Known as one of the best theological libraries in the United States, my “clergy” card got me unlimited access to every journal and book I wanted to get my nerdy hands on. I spent many a Saturday afternoons in a little cubby with a stack of books on theology, history, geography, etc. I said my hands belonged to those of a full-fledge nerd.

It was there, that some of the students told me about a prof from Vandy named Amy-Jill Levine.
I’ve finally been able to dive into her work (some three years later) and I’m kicking myself for waiting this long. She's one of the leading scholars of our time.

Levine is Jewish, but teaches New Testament background at Vandy. In a recent book, The Misunderstood Jew, Levine highlights and emphasizes the “scandal of particularity”—the historical context in which God became flesh. Here are a few sound bytes.

“ . . . The time and place therefore matter. Christianity follows Jesus of Nazareth, not Jesus of Cleveland or Jesus of Mexico City; the incarnation dates to the first century, not the twenty-first. Further, the Jewish tradition into which Jesus was born and the Christian tradition that developed in his name were ‘historical religions,’ that is, their foundational events took place in history and on earth . . .”

Regarding the development of Christianity, “At this point, matters get dicey. To preach to Jews the idea of a crucified messiah is dangerous enough, or, as Paul puts it, a ‘scandal.’ To speak of the ‘son of God’ or ‘god from god’ or ‘savior’ and to mean Jesus rather than Caesar (for these were titles given to the Roman emperor) was to suggest disloyalty to the state. To tell Gentiles that there were certain religious or social practices that they would have to give up was not only ‘folly’; it was seditious.”

All around the planet two billion people will celebrate the Jewish Prophet from Nazareth who died for Israel and Gentile alike. The Jewish man on whom the destiny of the world depends. The one who transformed the cross of condemnation into the cross of hope.