Resurrection of the Lord
There is a new book out in the market entitled, “How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee.” Bart Ehrman is a widely read scholar and author. A previous book by him titled, God's Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question--Why We Suffer, created a sensation. As a youth, Ehrman was an evangelical Christian passionate about convincing people about God becoming man. In this latest book he is more concerned about how a man called Jesus became God. According to Ehrman, Jesus does not claim that he is God except in the gospel of John. John’s gospel is written much later than the rest of the gospels. John’s gospel, according to Ehrman, is making a theological point when it says that Jesus make a claim that he is God. But historically, he says, the claim cannot be supported. If Jesus had indeed claimed he was God, why would the other three gospels miss this crucial detail? As opposed to John Ehrman claims that since he is making a historical fact and not a theological point. Historically, according to him, the belief that Jesus is God is a creation of the followers of Jesus. He also says that Christianity would not have the status and numbers it has today if after Constantine it had not become the state religion.
Ehrman is a scholar of religions and so am I. As a scholar I can point out to glaring historical and theological weaknesses in Ehrman’s arguments.[1] However, I am not here to talk about Bart Ehrman. Today is Easter! I am here to talk about Jesus. But we do have to face a dilemma. If Ehrman’s claims are indeed true, then you and I, along with more than a billion Christians are wasting our time here today. But here we are! We are here to worship Jesus Christ who was crucified, died and buried, but rose from the dead.
1. Why do you believe? Ehrman’s arguments against the divinity of Christ reminds me of people in the gospels who found it difficult to believe without facts. Thomas, Jesus’ own disciple, said that he would not believe unless he had touched his hands and his side. Finally though, after an encounter with Christ, he reached absolute certainty in his faith. Two thousand years separates us from the resurrection of Jesus. Today, if someone like Ehrman had to challenge your faith in Jesus and his resurrection, what would you say? Why do you believe in Jesus? Why do you believe that Jesus is God? Why do you believe that he is present here in our midst? Knowing that the historicity of the resurrection of Jesus is problematic, why are you a Christian?
In the early Christian era, the news of the resurrection did not spread because of historical evidence. The risen Christ did not appear to too many people. The news about the resurrection spread because of the die-hard faith, firm conviction and radical life-style of the followers of Jesus. It was their lives, their stories, their conversion, their fearless witness and their faith that spread Christianity. People like Ehrman will continue to question the historicity of the divinity and resurrection of Jesus. This means that the only assurance the world will have that Jesus is risen is the witness of your life and mine.
2. Encounter with Christ. Just before Christmas last year, Pope Francis released and apostolic exhortation titled, The Joy of the Gospel. The Pope begins this exhortation with these words, “The joy of the gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus.” And then again he says, “I invite all Christians, everywhere, at this very moment, to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ, or at least an openness to letting him encounter them.” Remember that Thomas had come to his faith in Christ because of his encounter with Jesus. Sadly, the Pope also says, “There are Christians whose lives seem like Lent without Easter.” To use a very American trope, Pope Francis is inviting Christians to put Christ back into Christianity. The Pope reasoning is simple – how can we speak about that which we do not know? How can we live that which we do not understand? How can we bear witness to that which have not encountered? How we let the world know that Jesus is alive if we have never met him?
3. Encounter with Christ – What does it mean, How does it Happen? “Encounter with Christ,” this is not the easiest concept to wrap our minds around. Clearly, we cannot have the kind of encounters that Jesus had with people before and after his resurrection. So what does it mean when the pope says that Christians should have a renewed encounter with Christ? How does that happen? Here is what the Pope says in his answer: “No one should think that this invitation [to a renewed personal encounter] is not meant for him or her….” “… Whenever we take a step towards Jesus, we come to realize that he is already there, waiting for us with open arms. Now is the time to say to Jesus: “Lord, I have let myself be deceived; in a thousand ways I have shunned your love, yet here I am once more, to renew my covenant with you. I need you. Save me once again, Lord, take me once more into your redeeming embrace”. He continues, “With a tenderness which never disappoints, but is always capable of restoring our joy, he makes it possible for us to lift up our heads and to start anew. Let us not flee from the resurrection of Jesus, let us never give up, come what will. May nothing inspire more than his life, which impels us onwards!"
Here is what I gather from the Pope’s words – that Jesus is God’s gift to us. Jesus’ life on earth was God’s gift to us. Jesus words and his message are gifts to us. His sacrifice on the cross was a gift to us. In the same way, an encounter with Christ today is also a gift. All we have to do is step forward and take the risk. This means that we must create the conditions for an encounter to happen. A serious prayer life is important for an encounter with Christ. Christ is most present in God’s Word and in the celebration of the sacraments. Those who make room for Christ in prayer and the sacrament also find him in the daily events of life and in people, especially the poor. This Easter mass is an encounter with the Risen Jesus.
Let me conclude with these words. Very soon, we will bring bread and wine and place it on the altar. Before he died, Jesus asked us to do this in “remembrance of me.” As we remember him who died for us, we also remember that he lives and is in our midst. We can encounter Jesus at this Easter mass. Today when you come for communion, let us, as the Pope says, “take a step toward him.” He is Risen.
- Fr. Satish Joseph
[1] For example, not every author writes the same way. The gospel writers differ in their styles. Whereas Mark’s Jesus may not claim explicitly that he is God, Mark has other characters in their story make this claim. For example, in Mark’s gospel while Jesus hung on the cross as a criminal, a Roman Centurion said, “Truly, this man was the Son of God.” In Matthew and Luke, the angel Gabriel announced to Mary that “the child to be born will be holy, the Son of God.” (Luke 1:35). In other words, Mark, Matthew and Luke are stylistically different than John. They make the same claim differently. (Son of God and Son of Man are Messiahnic titles). Moreover, why would the religious leaders want to kill him unless he claimed he was God? Jewish religious leaders did not have the authority to give capital punishment to anyone for any reason. Capital punishment was a Roman prerogative. Pilate found no fault in Jesus. Jesus was handed over to the Jewish religious leaders because they accused him of blasphemy. All the gospel record this. Historically too, there are serious weaknesses in Ehrman’s arguments. His claim that Christianity became a mass religion after Constantine is only partially true. I want to say that it became public after Constantine. Ehrman in his interview with Terri Gross on NPR claims that “If they [Jesus followers] hadn't attracted a large number of gentiles, there wouldn't have been this steady rate of conversion over the first three centuries to Christianity; it would've been a small Jewish sect.” But the fact is that, IT DID! In the first three hundred years before Constantine, the Jesus story attracted Jews and gentiles alike for no obvious financial or social gains. The history of the persecutions and the martyrs tell us that in the first three hundred before Constantine the good news of Jesus has spread throughout the Roman Empire;’ that hundreds of thousands of people had become Christians; and that unaccounted number of people were willing to die rather than deny their belief that Jesus was God. This is a historical fact that we know from the Pauline letters some of which were written before the gospels.