Every Saturday in my e-mail appears a fascinating column
called "This is True." This is what came last week:
"According to the officers on the scene, she told them she
was attempting to reenact a scene from the movie," said New
Britain, Conn. police spokesman Sgt. Darren Pearson. The movie:
"The Passion of the Christ." The unnamed woman, married and in
her 40's, purposefully drove her Chevrolet Lumina into a pond at
a city park in order to baptize herself, officers said. She was
taken to a hospital for a mental evaluation. (New Britain Herald)
Uh huh. Who will ever be able to forget the moving scene when
Jesus drives his Chevy into the baptismal pool?
Another one. A man in Somerset County, Vt. apparently
intent on suicide, built a cross in his livingroom and attempted
to crucify himself by nailing one of his hands to one side with a
14-penny nail. The unnamed 23-year-old then had a logistical
problem. "When he realized that he was unable to nail his other
hand to the board, he called 9-1-1," said Sheriff Barry DeLong,
who noted it was unclear whether the man wanted help getting
free, or help in nailing his free hand. (Bangor Daily News)
Which, of course, gives new meaning to the police slang, "We
nailed the suspect."
Hard to believe.
Truth be told, so was the story the women came back with
after their trip to the tomb. They had gone very early to finish
their gruesome labor of love, the embalming of the battered body
of their dear friend. What they found was a stone rolled away.
What they did NOT find was a body. As they looked at one another
bewildered, scripture says, "suddenly two men in clothes that
gleamed like lightning stood beside them...'Why do you look for
the living among the dead?' they asked. 'He is not here; he has
risen!'" Then they continued with a reminder of what they had
heard from Jesus himself before - the prediction of being
"delivered into the hands of sinful men, being crucified and on
the third day being raised again." They remembered. But it was
still hard to believe.
What to do now? Go tell the men. And the men's reaction?
In the words of the text, "They did not believe the women,
because their words seemed to them like nonsense."
What would you have thought? Move the scene forward 2,000
years. A dear friend has died an agonizing death. You are
responsible for handling arrangements but cannot get to the
funeral home immediately because of prior commitments. Two days
later you arrive to finalize details, and you are told that, as
of that morning, the body is no longer there. What? Where is
it? Why was he moved? What do you mean no one moved him? He is
just gone...poof! Perhaps like Peter you would rush to the
preparation area to verify what you have just heard, and finding
nothing but the shroud you too might "wonder." But, most likely,
that wondering would focus on what idiot had done something so
monumentally incompetent. Be honest: after hearing about
resurrection for how many Easters, would it even cross your mind
that the appropriate response would be to glorify God that your
once deceased friend now lives?
This past week, we heard the news from Tyler, Texas that
39-year-old Deanna Laney, on trial for killing her two sons and
injuring a third by bashing their heads in with rocks last
Mothers Day, was found not guilty by reason of insanity. She
said she refused anti-psychotic medication after her arrest until
her oldest son failed to rise from the dead on his ninth birthday
as she had expected.(1) Crazy, they say. What would you say?
To be honest, these questions are not at all new. Even in
the life of the first century church the questions were raised.
The Apostle Paul was concerned enough about the skepticism that
he addressed the issue at length in a letter to the church at
Corinth. He starts off by reminding them of the preaching that
they have heard from day one: "Christ died for our sins according
to the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the
third day..."(2) Then he continues with a list of those who saw
the risen Christ, witnesses - Peter, then to the disciples
gathered in the locked Upper Room; there was one appearance about
which we know no details which was witnessed by more than five
hundred at the same time, most of whom are still alive (and
presumably willing to verify), says Paul; he appeared to James,
then to all the apostles again, and last of all, Paul writes "he
appeared to me also" on the Damascus Road. Witness after witness
after witness. Which leads him to ask then, "How can some of you
say that there is no resurrection of the dead?"
Well, Paul, it is just hard to believe, that's all. But I
do have to add, I DO believe, and I'll tell you why - all those
witnesses.
Now, you Bible scholars know that there are fairly
significant differences in the resurrection accounts in the four
gospels. How many women went to the tomb? One? Two? Three?
More? Was the stone already rolled away or did they see it
happen? Was it men or angels who announced that Christ was
risen? Who of the disciples responded to the women's report?
Just Peter or Peter and John? It all depends upon which account
you read. Indeed, some skeptics want to use those differences to
convince folks that it never happened at all. Are they right?
I would respectfully say no. To me, those differences are
precisely what validate the story. Listen to eyewitness
testimony at a trial - if each one gives exactly the same account
of events, without any deviation whatsoever, that makes a jury
suspicious that they have colluded together to concoct something;
but if there are differences in detail while the major points
remain the same, the testimony sounds more legitimate. Yes, from
gospel to gospel, the resurrection accounts are different, but on
the main point, they all agree: the tomb was empty and the risen
Christ soon appeared. Hard to believe, yes, but frankly easier
to believe than the opposite, that it was all an elaborately
contrived hoax.
Think about that. If the resurrection of Christ did not
happen, the accounts we have are all fabrications. Those
witnesses cited by Paul all lied, everyone. The Apostles who had
been living in utter terror during and after the crucifixion but
who suddenly became quite public in their proclamation and
finally each one gave their lives for it had made this incredible
shift for no reason at all. Now, which is harder to believe?
All that? Or that the God of all the universe was not about to
let evil and death have the last word on anything, much less the
life and ministry of Jesus Christ? I suspect you know the one I
choose.
And if you want to know what difference it makes, Paul
answers that in that wonderful resurrection chapter in I
Corinthians; he says, "Christ has indeed been raised from the
dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep." The
firstfruits. That means his resurrection is just the beginning.
The promise of new life is for you and me as well. God is not
done with us yet, and will not even be done when we come to the
end of this earthly life. The older I get, the more important
that becomes.
Tom Long writes, "It has been my observation that somewhere
deep in the forest of life many Christians come to a fork in the
path. Some head in one direction, traveling their last few days
in bitterness, shouting at the world for its iniquity, wagging
their heads over the sad plight of our time, cursing 'what this
world has come to nowadays.' Others, however, are given the gift
of traveling the other way, the path of a cheerful confidence in
providence...This is the path that knows that a banquet table
awaits at the end and that a house of music and dancing can
already be heard in the distance. This is the path that sees a
world full of miracles. This is the way of blessing, the path of
gratitude.(3)
I am convinced that it is the risen Christ who stands at
this parting of the ways. If the good news of Easter is true,
then we have hope, and it is hope that sustains us when we face
our darkest hours.
Several years ago a school teacher accepted the volunteer
position of visiting and teaching children who were patients in a
large city hospital. One day the phone rang and she received her
first assignment as a new volunteer. She took his name and room
number and was told by the his teacher that this boy was studying
nouns and adverbs in his class before he was hospitalized.
It was not until the visiting teacher got outside the boys
hospital room that she realized that he was a patient in the
hospital's burn unit. She was prepared to teach English grammar,
but she was not prepared to witness the horrible look and smell
of badly burned human flesh. She was not prepared to see a young
boy in great pain either. She wanted to hold her nose...to
turn...and leave faster than she came. But she could not just
walk away. So she clumsily stammered over to his bedside, and
she simply said, "I am the hospital teacher and your teacher sent
me to help you with your nouns and adverbs."
The next morning a nurse from the burn unit asked her, "What
did you do to that boy?"
The teacher began to apologize profusely, but before she
could finish, the nurse interrupted her: "You don't understand.
We have been really worried about him...his condition has been
deteriorating over the past few days, because he had completely
given up hope. But ever since you were here with him yesterday,
his whole attitude has changed and he is fighting back, and
responding to treatment. It's as though he decided to live!"
When the nurse later questioned him about it, the boy said,
"I figured I was doomed...that I was gonna die...until I saw that
teacher." And as a tear began to run down his face, he finished:
"But when I saw her, I realized that they wouldn't send a teacher
to work on nouns and adverbs with a dead boy...would they?"(4)
Hope.
You historians may remember the name Nikolai Ivanovich
Bukharin. Bukharin was a Russian Communist leader. He took part
in the Bolshevik Revolution 1917, was editor of the Soviet
newspaper Pravda (which, by the way, means truth), and was a full
member of the Politburo. His works on economics and political
science are still read today.
There is a story told about a journey Bukharin took from
Moscow to Kiev in 1930 to address a huge assembly on the subject
of atheism. Addressing the crowd he aimed his heavy artillery at
Christianity hurling insult, argument, and proof against it. An
hour later he was finished. He looked out at what seemed to be
the smoldering ashes of people's faith. "Are there any
questions?" Bukharin demanded.
Deafening silence filled the auditorium but then one man
approached the platform and mounted the lectern and stood near
the communist leader. He surveyed the crowd first to the left
then to the right. Finally he shouted the ancient greeting known
well in the Russian Orthodox Church: "CHRIST IS RISEN!" En masse
the crowd arose as one man and the response came crashing like
the sound of thunder: "HE IS RISEN INDEED!"(5)
Hard to believe. But I do. And you? Happy Easter.
Amen!
1. Associated Press, 4/9/04
2. I Corinthians 15:3-4
3. Thomas G. Long, "Growing Old and Wise on Easter," Journal for Preachers, Easter
2001, pp. 33-40
4. Bill Adams, Trinity Episcopal Church, Sutter Creek, CA, via Ecunet, 12/ 29/96
5. James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited, (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc,
1988) p. 167
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