Speaking of God, it's Easter. The "pagan" holiday that we Christians decided to adopt and make our most sacred celebration: the day Christ "conquered death." Ready for today's dose of blasphemy? Of course you are.
Throughout the course of recorded time, there have been reports of men and women coming back to life. Sure, Christians like to pretend that Christ's triumphant return was the only really important one, but check out a couple of these situations:
The Egyptian god Osiris is said to have died and come back to life. As well as Baal, Melqart, Adonis, Eshmun, and Dumuzi.
The ancient Greeks had the god Asciepius who was killed by mighty Zeus and then came back to life as a major deity. Add to that Achilles, Agamemnon, and also a mortal, a 7th century sage named Aristeas of Proconnesus.
And let's not forget that within the Judaistic framework, there are resurrected folks. Elijah raises a kid from death in 1 Kings. EliSHa resurrects the son of a Shunammite woman (wonder what happened to these kids later in life...). Later some dude's dead body is thrown onto the bones of Elisha and he is resurrected. And lets not forget Lazarus- whom Jesus brought back to life just by telling him to. The "Lazaras Syndrome" is a modern-day medical term for patients who have been reported as dead and have miraculously come back to life with no scientific explanation. There have been at least 25 medical reports of this happening since 1982.
The point that I'm trying to make here is that the mysterious act of death and rebirth is not original in Christianity- nor does it really matter on this day. The Bible was not written with Jesus' resurrection as the climax of the story. GASP!
Christ did not "conquer death." If he did, than all men and women after his resurrection would be immortal. Death is still alive and kicking (couldn't resist). Christ did, however, come back to life (like others before and after him) to show that death is negotiable, at times, and that the soul is real and will carry on after our bodies have quit. Life is a cycle of death and rebirth as all naturalists will tell us.
Okay, Tim, so what the hell? Are you saying Easter is meaningless? Christ's resurrection is just ho-hum-okay? Are you a total heathen?
No, but kind of. Easter/spring season should for the Christian be a comforting reminder that the struggles and sorrows of winter are never permanent- that the pain of seeing Christ die as a blameless, upright human being will be erased by Him who knew no sin. The poor tree that lost all of its leaves and beauty will fire back with flowering and fresh leaves like never before. This is true of life in all major religions because it is how we relate to the earth that we live upon.
Christ tried to communicate this truth to his disciples before he was crucified (see Matthew 20, Mark 10, and Luke 18). Jesus knew that his followers would struggle with this concept because we like to make things definitive-- black or white. But the Creator has not made the life/death cycle so easy for us to make these snap judgments.
What is true, on Easter, as it is true in every culture in every solar system that can produce and sustain life is this, captured in Jeff Goldblum's brilliant line from Jurassic Park:
Life will find a way.
Even if that means that death must happen- life will return- GOOD will return- and a new dawn is the most holiest of representations of how our God will love us (the collective us) so much that he will allow and arrange deaths to occur so that we may experience a new life like we have never experienced before.
Those who would reject this "not religious enough" sentiment will do as Peter did before the resurrection- they will deny Christ and they will try to force the way of the Divine to function under their own set of foolish principles to which Christ will say warmly, "Get behind me, Satan" (Mark 8:31-33).
I see men and women try to work themselves up into a frenzy over Christ's death by creating such dramatic representations of it in cinema and theater. Perhaps our time, money, and efforts would be better spent in observing and preserving the growth and circle of life and love on this planet- physically expressing our thanks to our Creator for the gift of death and rebirth for all of us.
Think about it.
-Tim
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ReplyDeleteYes, you are a heretic. But I love you :) And only in part really. Here's my (long) two cents for the day. So maybe it's like sixty cents.
ReplyDeleteYour ideas of seasons, of the cycles of life and death, of not placing God within our own theological trappings, your notions of seasons of life and darkness are spot-on, I think. I loved your statement that Easter reminds us that the darkness and pain are not forever. I think this is absolutely true. It's true also that these themes are found in many other cultures and religions from whom Christians can learn a great deal!
Here's my objection(s). First and foremost, the Bible absolutely does climax around Christ--the Bible is a witness to God's self-revelation in Christ. So yes, I think it is important that Christ lived, died, and was resurrected. (Perhaps your point was that we over-focus on his death/resurrection and forget about His life? I agree that the three must be held together). Here's why I think Christ's life, death, resurrection matters and how it "defeated death."
Of course we still die. We can attribute this to the "here and not-yet" theory or we can say it more closely aligns with the idea of cycles/seasons. I could be performing my own heresy here, but I'm not sure this is really what is most important about Christ defeating death. I think, made possible by His being human and divine, and imparted to us because of His being human and divine, Christ said that death will no longer have the final word.
It's almost helpful at this point to think of death as the "Nothing" from The Never Ending Story or the "Hexxus" from Fern Gully. This darkness, evil, death-imparting, despair that always creeps in trying to steal what is life-giving, bringing chaos instead of order. This is what God says "No." to. I think it means that our lives are no longer ordered and contingent upon physical death, commanded by suffering, or dominated by despair. This doesn't mean that the full spectrum of human experience and emotion is not embraced and experience; it means that they are baptized with life. I think this is why it's imperative that we recognize, celebrate and focus on Christ's life, death and resurrection. Christ not only imparted His divinity to human flesh, but also reordered our lives, giving us the ability to be despairing, joyful, depressed, loving, angry, etc. in ways that still move toward life--toward love--rather than toward death--toward loneliness and violence. I have so many voices in my head! I hope I'm making sense :)
A final thought: This reorientation of humanity toward life is an incredible gift of freedom. We have been given the ability to say "yes" to people. Jesus taught that whatever we bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever we loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." If we are taught to love God and love our neighbors, perhaps we should be more concerned with drawing humanity together (saying "yes" to humanity) than parcelling ourselves apart with doctrinal differences, moral disagreement, etc. I understand that with this teaching comes incredible risk, but wasn't Jesus' original message fraught with tremendous risk? Hasn't even placing the Word of God into human hands come with incomparable danger? It might end up being something we cannot teach, but I think it's worth considering...