Easter – Now What?
Last Sunday, the Christian church celebrated Easter. It is the story of Jesus of Nazareth rising from the dead. I believe that he was killed because he was a threat to the Roman Emperor. His teachings were dangerous, and called into question the legitimacy of the economic, social, political and military power of the Empire. The arrest and trial were a sham, and with his death, they hoped that followers would quickly disappear.
Was Jesus really a political martyr? Jesus, in my mind, was not a politician. But, his parables were directed at the places of power. As a religious leader, after all I am a pastor of a local congregation, I remind myself that all the parables are directed at me. Sometimes when Jesus tells one of the fictional parables or stories, people want to kill him. I believe I have tamed most the political or economic meaning out of the parables. No one has ever wanted to kill me, or take me out of my office, as a result of my sermons on any of the parables. Jesus’ stories should make us angry, and act in different ways in our lives in order to bring about the Kingdom of God in our world.
We do not need to be political martyrs looking for death to be our ultimate faith statement. Jesus was the Messiah, and he died to make a statement to the world. I believe we need to be faithful to how we understand the teachings and the life and death of Jesus. Jesus told many parables, did many miracles of healing , and even raised a few people from the dead. He ate with sinners, and with people who thought they were better than other people. He named sin when he saw it, but also welcomed everyone to eat around the great banquet. He picked twelve people to teach about what the Kingdom means in the world, but they never really got the message. They argued among themselves about who was the best. They disagreed with some of the things he said, and I see that that is their greatest teaching to us. We can argue with him as well.
Jesus was a complex guy while he lived here on earth. He died young, maybe around 33. There are no recorded words that he wrote down that have survived. The words about him and by him were written down so that we, the next generations, would have reason to believe that he is the Saviour of the World. Most of the words about him, are concerning his life while here on earth. There are only a few stories about him post-resurrection. There is a really funny one about him cooking breakfast after he has been risen from the dead. He has a little campfire on the beach, and he is roasting some fish, and he asks some of his disciples to join him for breakfast (it is in John’s stories about Jesus).
I believe we need to be the resurrection stories for Jesus. We need to tell about how our lives are going. We need to say what we believe. The stories need to be about real stuff, about flesh and blood. For me, Jesus was a real human guy, who dealt with disappointment, pain, suffering, loss of friends and death. It is the same kinds of things that I have had to deal with in my life. The resurrection of Jesus is not about heaven, it is about what has happened here on the earth. It is about the things that Jesus taught while in this space, about our lives, and about caring for others. For me, if the resurrection does not have meaning for the here and now, it is no resurrection at all.
Fred Redekop