From
Death to Life
The older I get, the less concerned I am about the historical facts of my faith. Don't get me wrong, if I could know some historical fact regarding the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, I'd jump at the opportunity; it's more a matter of accepting the inherent limitations of living a life of faith regarding the type of knowledge faith reveals. I see so many folks trading their faith for a type of intellectual dishonesty that makes bizarre claims in an attempt to find empirical backing to what they claim to already believe. Harold Camping calculated the exact time for Christ’s return based on biblical passages. For Harold, this wasn’t faith but empirical truth. He convinced others. The time came and went. Nothing. Another date was set; it seems his calculations were a bit off the first time. The time came and went. Nothing. Finally, Camping admitted he got the whole thing wrong and will no longer make any further predictions. Humiliated, alone, and pilloried in the press, Harold Camping takes his first step towards resurrection: crucifixion.
There is no other way to resurrection than through crucifixion. This is the substance of my faith when I proclaim each Sunday, "He was crucified, died, and buried. On the third day, he rose again in accordance with the scriptures."
Crucifixion forces our hand to break our plans for an orderly and carefully controlled life and puts us at the feet of the cross or on it. We will likely never have empirical, historical evidence of Jesus’ bodily resurrection. Still, one thing is eminently probable: Jesus was killed on the cross by Roman and religious authorities who were threatened by the instability of challenged metaphors: Jesus said he was a king, and Jesus said he was the Messiah. The only possible way Jesus could walk to the cross was a faith born not in what would come after but in the sustaining relationship of love he had with the Father. Jesus' fear and feeling of dejection in murmuring the 22nd Psalm, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me," ends with the 31st Psalm: "Into your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit."
The Resurrection is what happened after. The disciples witnessed it according to the accounts of Scripture. But my faith finds its foundation in the resurrections I've experienced in others and in myself that have their origin in The Resurrection.
Easter
is the "difficult birth" of a faith borne on the cross of one who died two
thousand years ago and claimed to be a king and Messiah. Still, the
millions of new lives hewn from the roughness of the Cross are witness to a
deeper and more profound truth than an historical event, and the Resurrection has lived long
after Jesus walked the earth.
