Today is Palm Sunday, the day we remember Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem. This procession into the city on palms inaugurates what we call "Holy Week", or the last week of Jesus' life. During this last week: he says goodbye to his friends and washes their feet, he's betrayed by a friend and imprisoned, again he is betrayed by Peter and sent to death by crucifixion. On Good Friday he finally dies, alone and disconnected from God...
Around mid-afternoon Jesus groaned out of the depths, crying loudly, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" which means, "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?"
-Matthew 27: 46 (The Message)
It sounds like an ending, but three days later he comes back from the dead - alive in a new body (of sorts). He appears not only to his closest friends, but to hundreds of others, who upon seeing him back from the dead, believe he is the Son of God.
According to Christians his resurrection has huge implications for the world. If Jesus truly died and brought himself back to life, well then he'd be the only person ever to do that! So what would this mean? I like how Bishop of Durham / Author N. T. Wright puts it:
"The resurrection completes the inauguration of God's kingdom. . . . It is the decisive event demonstrating that God's kingdom really has been launched on earth as it is in heaven." "The message of Easter is that God's new world has been unveiled in Jesus Christ and that you're now invited to belong to it." "The point of the resurrection…is that the present bodily life is not valueless just because it will die…What you do with your body in the present matters because God has a great future in store for it…What you do in the present—by painting, preaching, singing, sewing, praying, teaching, building hospitals, digging wells, campaigning for justice, writing poems, caring for the needy, loving your neighbor as yourself—will last into God's future. These activities are not simply ways of making the present life a little less beastly, a little more bearable, until the day when we leave it behind altogether (as the hymn so mistakenly puts it…). They are part of what we may call building for God's kingdom."
According to Christians, Christs resurrection has as much to do about the Kingdom of Heaven on earth as it does with the Kingdom of God after we die. And this Kingdom is a way of life that calls for the redemption of all people back to their maker. For N.T. Wright this plays itself out through the pursuit of Justice, love and healing for the world.
In my own words, I would say the resurrection is a way of living which affirms the unconditional love of God for the entire world. If this is true, than my life, not my creeds, would speak the truth of the resurrection. Reversely, if my actions didn't match my beliefs it would seem I actually don't believe them in the first place.
Therefore, I deny the resurrection. Here is a short video explaing my point from author/pastor Peter Rollins - a fellow resurrection denier. I thought it was appropriate since he's from Belfast and I'll be heading there tomorrow...
I Deny the Resurrection from Peter Rollins on Vimeo.
I'm sure there is some huge flaw in my thinking here... but this morning durring church I realized I totally agree with Peter. I'm just like those first Palm sunday worshippers; I hail Jesus as king and in the next moment condemn him. Sometimes I believe God is risen and live like it is so, and yet there are other times when I act as if God isn't alive in the people around me. So I become apathetic, selfish and even cruel...
Like Peter Rollins I deny the resurection everytime I refuse to serve my brother or sister, and I affirm the resurrection every time I love others like my God loved me.
I'll be in Ireland this next week, then onto London for the Royal Wedding and finally back home to Bradford.
Until then... Grace and peace to you this Easter. He is risen!
