Let me make the usual disclaimer that this Reflection is written by a Christian for Christians, for those who are on a spiritual quest and are inquiring about the tenets of Christianity, and for all others who may find value in it if it helps them understand Christian belief a bit better.
Faith is a given in this Reflection. Therefore, there is no intention here to carry on dialogues about the validity of faith, the reality of events, or a general discussion of the merits of faith, or the lack thereof. Such discussions can be originated on other blogs, if their owners wish.
This Easter I would like us to focus on a theme that irritated more than a few of my pastor friends when I was still a pastor. Irritation of the clergy, however, considering the lethargy in the Church these days, can only be a good thing.
The point of my Easter Reflection is simple: Today the Resurrection is the greatest stumbling bloc for many who otherwise would believe in Christ. We know that St. Paul speaks of the great stumbling block that the Cross has been to belief. And it has been and still can be. But to the modern mind the greater stumbling block to faith is the Resurrection; not the Cross.
Christians, and in particular, Christian pastors, are not supposed to admit such a thing, especially on Easter when pastors have a shot at saying easy comforting things to a lot of people they may not see in church again for quite a while.
But while I am no longer a pastor, I am still a theologian who looks to relate the realities of the Bible to the realities of life for ordinary Christians. I am still trying to bridge the gap between the Church and people. Now if you tell me that there should be no such gap I will tell you, like Craig Ferguson says, "I know!" But there it is.
I happen to believe that one of the problems with the faith these days, a main problem, is that pastors spend far too much time trying to tell people what they think the people want to hear, what they'll tolerate; and too little time telling them the Gospel truth that they need to hear.
When I preached week in, week out, I strictly preached the Gospel, even when I was none too fond of it; particularly if it exposed my own weakness and sin to its light. And this Easter is no different than those Easters when I was in the pulpit. We still need to let God speak to us through the Bible; and we need to listen to what God has to say.
The Resurrection is central to Christian faith. If you are a Christian and you can't at some time in your life before you die, believe that the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is true, then your faith is incomplete. [Thanks to Mike Rodgers for giving me reason to clarify this point.]
You don't have to believe me on this one. Read the 15th Chapter of Paul's letter to the church at Corinth as an example. It's all laid out there in black and white. And it's very clear. Even if you haven't picked up a Bible in years, you'll get it.
I need to say right here that there are places in the Bible that imply that God will eventually gather to himself all people who ever lived. That idea is called "universal salvation." And a surprising number of Christians believe in it. I am never willing to say that I know the limits of God's mercy and grace. I am not that foolish. Our God is a God of mercy and of second chances, so perhaps everyone will eventually get into the good side of eternal life. I simply do not know if that is true or not.
What I do know is true is that there are far, far more places in the Bible that clearly say that the decisions we make in this life are permanent and consequential than the few places where it might be interpreted that they aren't. And, since it is usually possible to make the right decision in this lifetime why would a Christian want to take a chance?
So, for the Christian, the Resurrection is a keystone of the faith. If Jesus be not raised, then He died a fool on the Cross, for nothing. And we are fools as well, for we have put our faith in a fool. But if, as I believe to be true, God raised him from the grave; if he ascended into heaven, there to reign at the right hand of God, there to intercede for us, then we too, through faith in him, shall be raised to live in glory with him, at the Last Day.
It's really as simple, and as difficult, as that. That is our proclamation as Christians. That is our faith. It is what we believe. It is by that faith that we live. And it is in that faith that we die, knowing that we shall be raised to be with him.
In the early days of the church the great stumbling block to faith was not the Resurrection. It was the Cross. Many in Paul's time did not think it impossible for God to raise someone from the grave. Most Jews had begun to believe that it was possible; and the gentiles had already heard numerous stories of Greek and Roman gods raising people from death. It was already part of Persian religious culture as well. So while many still questioned the idea, including some in the church in Corinth, the idea of Resurrection was not entirely foreign to people in Paul's day.
While Paul speaks occasionally about the difficulty of believing the Resurrection of Jesus, Paul speaks more often of the difficulty people had in believing that the Son of God could be hanged on a cross and killed. If Jesus was God incarnate, then how could God die on a cross? It was a scandal, a stumbling block, that stood between those who taught the faith and those who would believe.
Of course, for many, the Cross is still a stumbling block; even as are Jesus' miracles, the virgin birth, and many other claims of Christianity. Why is that? I think that, in our rush to judge the Bible and its claims by the standards of modern science, many, including far too many Christians, have judged the claims of the Bible "scientifically", and found them wanting.
And, having been attacked by the skepticism of science, both from within the Church and from outside it, we Christians have too often tried very unsuccessful ways to defend the faith. The two main unsuccessful ways of defending the faith have been by (1) rationalization and (2) believing we were defending it according to scientific methods.
In the mainline churches, like those I have belonged to, pastors have mostly tried to rationalize their way around a lot of the more controversial aspects of the faith. Many pastors say that there are perfectly logical explanations for the miracles; they choose which miracles to preach on, preferring the ones that we can attribute to psychological illness, or that we can explain by some quirky natural phenomena.
Many pastors also argue, often correctly, that many things in the Bible are actually metaphors rather than "fact." And often times I have no trouble with that. Many things written in the Bible are metaphoric, not to be interpreted literally. But many are not metaphoric, and the Resurrection is one that is not.
Now this timidity which results in running for cover through rationalization and metaphor is caused by one thing: The challenge of the modern scientific mind. If our beliefs can't stand the rigors of scientific testing, then we think they have to be rationalized, or seen as not literal but metaphoric.
But in each case we have succumbed to the temptation to justify our faith because we are afraid of a challenge from those who insist on viewing the faith through the eyes of science. And in so doing we have forgotten what faith means in the first place. We'll come back to what faith means in a moment. But, for now, let's relate our problem to the Resurrection of Jesus.
Of all the stumbling blocks to the faith, to the modern, rational, scientific mind the Resurrection is the biggest stumbling block of all. It is also one miracle that Christians can't effectively rationalize away. And the metaphors for resurrection, while often beautiful: butterflies emerging, the sunrise, new growth in spring, a rebirth after a long and cold winter, they are hardly a satisfactory explanation of what is written clearly in all four Gospels.
Opponents can and do deny it, debunk it, ridicule it and ignore it. But even the best Christian can't rationalize it, short of agreeing that it never happened. And when that happens we have just given the faith away.
So, oddly, sadly, Christians who should know better also try to justify the Resurrection scientifically. That well traveled road is particularly popular with evangelicals, which has always struck me as odd since they are the ones most likely to have a literal interpretation of the Bible. Having that, they are far more vulnerable to scientific type scrutiny than are mainline or liberal Christians.
To my dismay, in my dissatisfaction with the rationalization road, I have sought out other pastors for answers, only to find them going down the risky road of subjecting their own Christian faith to the tests of science.
On this Easter Sunday there will be great and impossible claims being made from pulpits all over the world that the empty tomb "proves" the Resurrection; and other "proof" will be alleged as well. Book after book has been written on the "proofs" of the Resurrection.
And arguments will be made that this is just as exacting a proof of a literal fact as any scientific experiment might yield. Actually, some of them are very excellent arguments that the Resurrection makes sense. But to argue that their case is the same as scientific proof is only to show an abysmal lack of understanding of the scientific method.
So, ultimately, this is a exercise in futility. It may make us feel good. I've read those books, heard those sermons. They do make me feel good. But those arguments will not, can not, sway the rational mind bent on seeing "proof of the Resurrection" in a scientific sense.
The truth is that no one can "prove" the Resurrection in a scientific, emperical sense. No one. After all, nobody saw the Resurrection. And, to the scientific mind that will always be the final stumbling block to "proving" the Resurrection. The very foundation of science is built on repeatable empirical events. Not only has the Resurrection never yet been repeated by anyone, but the first event was witnessed by no human.
The early church, in many ways much smarter than today's church, made no attempt to "prove" it by worldly tests. Instead they proclaimed it to be true. They knew it was true! Why? Because they believed it. They believed the eye witness testimony of those who saw the Risen Christ. The key to faith was to accept the kerygma, the proclamation, of the Gospels when it was proclaimed by believers like Peter, Paul, Timothy, James, John and the others.
Knowing this, we can come back now to the issue of "faith." The test the early Christians applied to the Resurrection was not a test of science, but the test of faith. Many Christians today cannot actually tell you what faith is. The Bible tells us; but we tend not to look there for a definition even though that is where the best definitions are found.
Traditionally, Christians have believed the Resurrection is true because the Bible says it is true. They didn't look for definitions in the Bible because if the Bible said it, then they believed it. Today we still believe that the Bible is the inspired witness to the Word, Jesus Christ. Some Christians even call the Bible the Word of God. That is a title I reserve for Jesus, but either way the Bible is seen as a Holy Book, not just another best seller.
They believe the Resurrection is true because witnesses they trust said that they saw the Risen Lord. And, most of all, they believe it is true because, believing it, they see the living Lord operating in their own lives and in the lives of their fellow Christians. In other words, they have faith.
What is faith? In Hebrews 11 we are told that faith "is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." That sentence is worth reading over and over until we understand it.
Paul tells us in Romans 1 that "the righteousness of God is revealed through faith"; and in Romans 3 he says that we are justified, made holy, by grace, through faith. In Romans 10 he tells us that faith comes from what is "heard," and that what is heard comes to us through "the word of Christ." In 1st Timothy Paul speaks of "the faith," our faith, as a "mystery," and John, in Revelation, calls for us to endure and to hold fast to faith in Jesus.
Faith is one of the most common words in the New Testament, and nowhere is it described as something that comes from empirical knowledge. Faith comes from the grace of God. It is a gift. It is not, and cannot be, earned, or found through study, or demanded because we have gone through all the right motions.
It is intuitive. It is felt. It rises above mere words. It is, repeating Hebrews once more, "the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." And it is not, and can not be, subject to scientific "proof."
The bottom line for me is simple. I believe that the Resurrection is true. It is a truth I know by faith. A wise saint, Anselm, said that theology (the study of God) is fides quaerens intellectum, "faith seeking understanding."
As one who spent much of my life as a Christian, yet one trying to find the truth the other way around (If I can just understand, I'll have faith!) I can tell you that it won't work that way. First, have faith. Then study and learn, seeking understanding. And the understanding will flood in once the faith is yours.
Because of my faith, the Resurrection of Jesus is not a stumbling block in my life today. For many years it was; for I was a Christian lay person lead by well-meaning pastors and teachers down the path of rationalization. But I couldn't get there from here.
And I also felt indicted by other well meaning pastors and teachers when I could not see what they said was so obvious: that they had proven some event in the Bible scientifically. Yet it was so clear to me that they failed, in spite of their fervor.
And the effect of being whiplashed between those two positions was that I felt terribly inadequate. I felt that since these were learned leaders in the church something must be fundamentally wrong with me, and I feared that I could never be a proper Christian.
Today, I know the Resurrection is true by faith. And the Bible tells me that God's grace, through my faith, is sufficient for me to feel firm in my knowledge of Christianity and of my salvation.
Perhaps some of you Christians have gone down a path similar to mine. And perhaps you are still struggling with others who try to "prove" the Resurrection to you by "scientific" explanations, or to rationalize it away. If so, I know the sense of feeling that you are somehow considered less of a Christian than those who seem so cocksure about their faith.
But, if you feel that way, I need to tell you that there is nothing wrong with you. And there is a better way for you to go than either of those well-traveled roads which only lead us away from faith.
The better way is simply to ask Christ for faith. I know it sounds too simple. But I did it and kept doing it for almost a year and then one day it dawned on me that I believed the things I had doubts about before.
There was no lightening bolt, no obvious time when I felt I was different. It was more like I just woke up one morning and everything fell into place. I didn't dance or run down the street screaming about the change in me. Rather I felt a peace and a certainty that I cannot describe. A peace that told me that my faith was real.
My prayer for Christians or seekers who struggle with the truths of the faith is that they will invite Jesus into their hearts and ask him to give them faith. If the Resurrection is a stumbling block for you, tell him that. He will listen and he can give you faith. You can't create it in yourself. You can't study or read your way to it. But Jesus can create it in your heart if you ask for it.
Do you remember the story in Mark of the man who brought his child to Jesus for healing, a child with an evil spirit in him? And he asked Jesus that, if Jesus were able to do anything, would he have pity on his boy and help him? And Jesus said "All things can be done for the one who believes."
And the man, overcome with love for his son and at his wits end, said what so many of us need to say to Jesus, yet we are afraid to mouth the words: "Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief!" We have all been at that place at some point in our lives. If the Resurrection is a stumbling block, the prayer of that man is the prayer we need to say.
I hope that this Easter Reflection has resonated with you and has opened up new avenues to how you might approach the Resurrection of Jesus, the Christ. The key to feeling the wonder and grace of the Resurrection is to have Resurrection Faith.
To my Christian friends I say: May this Easter be for each of you a day of wonder, of mystery, of love and of joy, a day of faith in the one who rose from the dead, who ascended to heaven and even now sits at the right hand of God and mediates and advocates for us, who promises to each who believe in him everlasting life: our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
To those are searching for faith of any kind, I say do not be discouraged, but allow yourself the peace of knowing that faith cannot be gained through study but by opening ourselves, our hearts, our minds, our spirit, allowing them to become vessels of truth. Most often I have found that it is in the calm center of the storm that rages around us that the truth comes to us.
To those who have chosen no spiritual path I say that I hope that this Reflection gives you a better understanding of how Christians think about the Resurrection, and of how I believe that the only way that Christians can see the Resurrection and believe its truth is through the eyes of faith. I hope that each of you have found a peace and understanding that you find nourishes your own well being and allows you to reach out to others in love.
To all I pray that your lives will be full of love for yourselves and for others so that we may reach out in love to all who need a touch, a word, an act of kindness, or simply the ministry of our presence in their lives.
Happy Easter,
And as always, God bless.
Monte
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