Easter Morning
– 12 April 2009
Some time ago, I developed a peculiar
habit, when I get a book, I look at the bibliography first. I love bibliographies because in a
bibliography, you can see the influences on an author, but my love for
bibliographies is surpasses my love of footnotes. I read all the footnotes in a book, and
sometimes I read the footnotes before I read the main text. According to Emily, I am a man of unusual
habits. Footnotes offer tantalizing trinkets
of information. They are like footprints
in the sand, mapping out the author’s path of thought. They provide numerous rabbit trails of
intellectual pursuit. Yet, for all they
are worth, a footnote will always be a footnote, an individual item of
information that was not worth putting into the ebb and flow of the main
text. Despite their interest and value,
a footnote cannot survive without the main story; take a footnote away and you
still have a good story, but take the story away and the footnote loses its
value and interest. Without the story, a
footnote is like an unanchored boat floating hither and thither in the
ocean.
Everything since the Jesus’
resurrection is a footnote. This is a
bold and seemingly foolish claim, but I say it because of something N.T Wright
once said (in the main text of a book!), “Everything … hinges on Jesus’
resurrection.”[1] When Wright uses the word “everything” he
really means “everything.” Everything
before Jesus’ resurrection hints at this event and everything that follows is a
footnote. There are three reasons
everything hinges on the resurrection.
First, the word “resurrection” in first-century Judaism was always
associated with a bodily physical existence.
A first century Jew would never use the word “resurrection” for resuscitation
or a new, merely spiritual existence; it meant a re-embodiment, a remaking of
the physical body. Second, in
first-century Judaism, especially among the Pharisees (yes, the Pharisee were
right about something!) the resurrection was the climax of human history
happening at the end of this age. Third,
the resurrection would inaugurate God’s rule upon earth for through the
resurrection God would triumph over evil, sin, and death. As someone once said, “Without the
resurrection, the crucifixion carries no gospel, no announcement of royal
victory, and hence no consequences of salvation. … If Jesus had defeated sin,
death could not hold him. If (conversely) he rose again from the dead, it meant
he had indeed dealt with sin on the cross.[2] If
we braid these three strands of thought together, we can see that Jesus’
resurrection is the climax of history because through it God Almighty defeated
evil, sin, and death and inaugurated his eternal reign over earth. As the memorable line in Handel’s Messiah says, “The kingdom of this world
has become the kingdom of our Lord and he shall reign forever and ever.
Hallelujah!”
The resurrection is the climax of
history and that makes all historical events after the resurrection mere
footnotes, interesting footnotes albeit, but footnotes non-the-less. This means that we live in the footnotes of
history. Therefore, if we want to know
ourselves, if we want to know our place in history, if we want to make sense of
our surroundings, if we want to find meaning and truth, we must know history’s main
story, the story of Jesus that has its grand climax in his resurrection. If we try to find meaning, truth, knowledge,
and beauty anywhere else, we will become an unanchored footnote floating
blinding in the surging seas of life.
Perchance,
this is the reason why so many people throughout history have attempted to
discredit Jesus’ bodily resurrection.
N.T. Wrights says this, “Resurrection has, of course, always been
frowned upon by sensible people; from at least the time of Aeschylus and Pliny
the Elder, both of whom firmly deny that such a thing could happen. But in the
last two hundred years, precisely in step with our modern political
institutions, we have been told that with the rise of modern science we simply cannot
believe in resurrection… Jesus’ resurrection has to be got out of the way
because, if it really happened, it would mean that world history reached its
climax on the first Easter Day, whereas Europe and
Jesus’
resurrection is a dangerous doctrine. It
relegates men and their institutions to history’s footnotes and we men do not
like to be footnotes. The resurrection
is a dangerous doctrine because it is the proclaimation that right now Jesus
Christ is our reigning king, and no earthly king or ruler like to be told they
must submit to the authority of another.
Jesus’ resurrection is a dangerous historical event because it forces
all men to acknowledge that true change and transformation is possible. Since Jesus triumphed over sin, evil, and
death and since he has already inaugurated the kingdom to come, we no longer
have to live under sins tyranny, evil’s oppression, and death’s power.
We
all know that we need to experience transformation. On a physical level, we all know that our
bodies are corruptible and slowly decaying.
On a spiritual level, we all know that our mind is weak, our loyalty
frail, our prayers feeble and infrequent and our obedience faulty. Jesus’ resurrection is the transformation we
long for, it is the salve for all our wounds, and it is salve available right
now in the present.
Since
the resurrection of Jesus, history has been a long series of footnotes. Yet, by the grace of God through the work of
the Spirit, we do not have to remain footnotes; we can become part of history’s
great story by being united to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now to him, who has triumphed over evil,
overcome sin, cast away death and who has the power to transform us, a footnote
of history, into God’s beautiful poetry, to him be all honor and glory.
Amen.