For the past few years, I’ve noticed that in the weeks
before Easter the magazine racks in the grocery stores will have a number of
Jesus-related covers and articles. This
year, CNN is running a series entitled Finding Jesus: Faith, Fact and
Forgery. The major theme of most of
these articles and shows is about discovering the historical Jesus. What can scholars tell us about Jesus and his
world? Can there be proof of the life,
death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth?
This is
where things get tricky. Many Christians
look to the Bible as proof of Jesus’ story.
Yet the gospel texts are documents shaped by faith rather than impartial
historical accounts. As the Christian
movement grew, and as the first generation of Christians began to pass away, a
more uniform way of telling the story was needed. But this did not happen in the immediate
aftermath of the death and resurrection.
It is commonly believed that the gospel of Mark, probably the earliest
gospel text, was written about three decades after the events it
describes. The growth of historical
Jesus articles reflects the hope that the Jesus story can be confirmed by
outside evidence. If only a
non-Christian contemporary of Jesus had told the story or if only the shroud of
Turin could be 100% authenticated then we would know that the story of Jesus and
all it implies is true.
The
reality is that there are not a great many references to Jesus in the
historical record, especially by anyone who could be considered his
contemporary. The Roman historian
Tacitus makes mention of his execution in a brief description of the Christian
movement . The Jewish historian Flavius Josephus
also talks briefly about Jesus, his trial and death. Yet there are no records outside of the
gospel texts that talk about going to a party where water was turned to wine,
seeing some guy walking on water or Jesus himself, raised from death. Most modern scholars agree that there is
enough evidence to say that there was a Jesus of Nazareth in the first century
of the common era; that he was crucified by Pontius Pilate and died. The rest of the gospel stories; teaching,
miracles and resurrection, live in the realm of faith. We cannot prove them but are challenged to
live as though they were true.
Perhaps
someday someone will come up with irrevocable proof of the gospel story and it
may well change the world as we know it, but until that time there will be no
proof of the resurrection that you will read in an historical Jesus article or
see on a television screen. The proof of
the resurrection is not to be found in ancient documents but rather in lives that
are lived in response to that resurrection.
To
those of you who are atheist or agnostic who have read this far to see what
kind of drivel pastors are writing these days, you have every right to call
Christianity into question because we have bungled this up in a big way. We Christians have confused faith with
religious practice or memorized knowledge.
We have used our faith to segregate rather than unify. We have used the good news as a bludgeon
rather than a gift of love. While there
are many stories of Christians doing great good in the name of faith (e.g. St.
Francis of Assisi, Dorothy Day, and Martin Luther King, Jr.), there are just as
many if not more stories of crusades, inquisitions, cover-ups and general
hypocrisy.
So to those of you who are
Christians reading this on the cusp of Easter, realize that you are the living proof
of the resurrection. If the resurrection
is about being set free from guilt and shame, are we living lives that set others
free and offer forgiveness? If the
resurrection is about abundant life, are we living lives of generosity that
feed the hungry, shelter the homeless and give companionship to the lonely? If the resurrection is about the reign of God
coming near, are we living as ambassadors of a reign that is shaped by peace,
justice, love and life?
Easter Sunday is a beautiful Sunday
for the church. The crowds come
out. Trumpets sound. The scent of lilies overpowers. Yet none of these is proof of a stone rolled
away and an empty tomb. The proof of the resurrection happens as the crowds
leave the trumpets and the lilies behind.
It happens as we go back and live the resurrection in our Monday-morning
lives, our relationships and our community.
If you believe, then you are also called to be the living proof of
Easter.
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