My first reconnection with church occurred in my 38th year. My father gave me a copy of John Spong's Rescuing The Bible from the Fundamentalists. It was like water to a thirsty soul. One concept still resonates nearly 20 years later. When we look at sacred writings, we all too often ask, did this happen? The better and more profound question is, what does it mean?
And so we might ask ourselves, what does Easter mean? I invite you to stop reading here and ponder that question for yourself. And, or, here’s one of the ways I think about it. For me, Easter is about a profound and so compelling alternative view of how we can live together as a species.
To discuss Easter, we must always begin with Good Friday. Imagine the crowd that fateful Friday. In a city like Jerusalem, at the start of a high holy day, the city would be packed with people from all walks of life. People from all over the known world; of various colours and backgrounds. In front of Pilate’s city palace that day, hundreds would have gathered; slave and free, collaborators and resistors, rich and poor, Roman and very kind of religious background you can imagine; within and outside of Judaism. And what brings them together? What brings us diverse humans together most quickly? A common enemy and the promise of retribution. Especially when that enemy is the outsider, the unknown.
Jesus is the outsider, the unknown, the challenger to the status quo. Jesus is an immigrant, a Gallilean for heaven’s sake! The texts even tells us that his followers have accents! Imagine the conversations in the crowd: ‘He has shown up here, probably, after your job you know, and he is causing problems.’ If there had been media giants of the time, there’d be talk of “fake news”. Imagine the commentators and politicians in public houses and squares, calling out the ‘threat to our way of life’, ‘the way of life that we have all worked so hard to maintain’. The threat that ‘this immigrant and his followers bring to our way of life’. ‘The threat to your family’s security and being able to work and put food on the table.’ Does this sound familiar?
Since the beginning of our human societies, our way of communion, our way of fellowship and keeping the peace, is to unify against other people. That’s what ritual blood sacrifice was about for many millennia of human community. That’s what war is still about today; the war on terror, the war on drugs, the war on crime, the war on the provincial Liberals, or the war on the NDP. They are all about “othering” people, blaming those people, over there. “They” are the cause of our problem. We cry out “let them be crucified”, literally or figuratively. The message of Easter is about NOT crucifying, anyone, ever again. Literally or figuratively.
What do Christians celebrate on Easter Sunday? We celebrate that the first words out of the resurrected young rabbi are not of retribution and violence. They are of peace, and forgiveness and love. Our usual model of revenge and even how we use the word ‘justice’ are tossed aside. The man the crowd killed, forgives and models peace. Easter is about unity through common and mutual regard and forgiveness for all people, everywhere. It is about communion through humility, love, compassion and empathy for each other, especially those who are different from us.
I wonder what Easter might mean for you now? I wonder where else we might gather as diverse individuals, Where else we might gather not looking for blame or violent retribution, but to celebrate gratitude, grace and forgiveness. To share the Love that overcomes even violence and death. I wonder where else in groups of people, you and I might have the courage to call out a new way of life for all people?
Alisdair Smith is Deacon and Business Chaplain at Christ Church Cathedral, Vancouver BC.
You can read more articles from our interfaith blog, The Spiritual View, HERE.
