Easter is the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus. The Lord is risen. As He had said, He is risen. Those who do not have a Christian faith, even those reading the gospels as pure literature, will finally fall back into their chair with relief and a triumphant wow—no, everything is not over. Jesus unfolds, he reveals, a little more of the great journey of life—the resurrection.
As humans first we become aware of life, and then we experience death. Most of us stop there, in doubt, skepticism, cynicism, agnosticism, atheism, and the list could go on. Jesus, through the event of his resurrection tells us, do not stop there, life continues into resurrection. Resurrection could be understood two ways.
Resurrection Is the Central Blueprint of the Cosmos
What Jesus revealed through the paschal mystery — the life, death and resurrection of Jesus — is the revelation of the universal pattern of things. He summarises it this way: order > disorder > reorder (life > death > resurrection), claims Richard Rohr. God did not just resurrect Jesus to prove a point; rather, the resurrection of Jesus makes visible to the eyes of the disciples and to all of us what God is always doing everywhere. Death is not the opposite of life; it is a necessary part of the transition into a deeper, transformed life. Every time a seed breaks open to become a tree, or a human ego suffers a blow only to find deeper humility—that is the resurrection pattern at work.
When we view the resurrection through Richard Rohr’s lens, it shifts from being a distant historical doctrine or reality in the past, 2000 years ago (about Jesus) or a distant reality or possibility in the future (for us). Resurrection is the central blueprint of the cosmos—then our spiritual job is to participate in it.
The Theodicy of God
Liberation, social, and prophetic theologians would see resurrection as the Theodicy of God, or it is the justice of God. Jesus is the advocate of the poor, the marginalised, and the oppressed. They see resurrection as God siding with the marginalised; it is the fulfillment of God’s covenant with humanity. Resurrection is God’s answer to the culture of oppression and death.
Resurrection stands as hope, courage, and companion especially when one is most singled out because he/she refuses to go with the majority, crowd, or the establishment. The resurrection is the divine blueprint of things for people who are fighting a battle alone. Often we give into the crowd, into the majority. It is a space the crowd cannot reach, the majority has no influence.
Hannah Arendt is one of the most influential political theorists of the twentieth century. She was in a relationship with Martin Heidegger. In 1933, when Heidegger joined the Nazi Party and began implementing Nazi educational policies as rector of Freiburg, Arendt, who was Jewish, was forced to flee to Paris. She was a fugitive from the Nazis and later immigrated to the United States. She is best known for her famous books, The Origin of Totalitarianism, On Violence, and her philosophical account of the trial of Adolf Eichmann, Eichmann in Jerusalem. Eichmann had been named chief executioner and a key architect of Nazi ‘Final Solution’. Thereupon he organized the identification, assembly, and transportation of Jews from all over Europe to their final destinations at Auschwitz and other extermination camps in German-occupied Poland.
Later he was captured by the Israeli government and was tried. The capture and trial itself was controversial. At the trial Eichmann portrayed himself as an obedient bureaucrat who merely carried out his assigned duties. Denying responsibility for the mass killings, he said, “I couldn’t help myself; I had orders, but I had nothing to do with that business.”
It is in this context and in that book Arendt coined the word ‘banality of evil,’ which describes how ordinary people commit atrocious crimes not through innate wickedness, but by thoughtlessly and helplessly following orders, conforming to bureaucracy, and neglecting to think critically about their actions' consequences. She said that great evils are committed not just by fanatics, but by ordinary people who "never make up their minds to be good or evil," acting without thought. They are culpable of thoughtlessness or thought-defying arising from a lack of reflection, imagination, and moral judgment rather than inherent sadistic intent.
Christ faced pressures from the establishment, from the crowd, from the majority to give into them, but he refused in spite of his trial, crucifixion, and death. And God raised him up. A genuine Christian in modern political and social scenario would be singled out, and pressurised to join the establishment and majority, hold on like Jesus. You shall rise with him.
How Do We Cooperate in the Process of Our Resurrection?
The entire universe is shimmering with the possibility of resurrection, with the endless possibility of dying and being reborn into greater selves. Resurrection takes its time so hang on; and resurrection has its time, so let go when the time comes as Jesus did.
At times we are so shortsighted and adamant like Judas, we don't have hope in the process, we don't trust the process, thus we end the process and quit abruptly. I always think that if Judas had lived on he would, in the fullness of time, have experienced change and transformation. Life takes time; we can’t force a chick out of an egg. Hang on there long enough, and be ready to let go when we ought to. Jesus completely surrendered himself into the hands of his Father.
If Resurrection Is Possible Every Good Is Possible
Luke’s gospel begins with the preaching of the angel to Mother Mary who was still young and concerned about her bearing a son by the Holy Spirit; Nothing is impossible with God was what the angel told her. Then all through the pages of the gospels God confirmed it to her, to the disciples and to us. Resurrection unambiguously proves that with God, every good is possible, and God promotes life with every richness and vividness.
Let me end with the great German tradition of the Easter bunnies. There may be no other people who take the Easter so seriously as the Germans. They make it a real family celebration. They have the tradition of having painted and decorated Easter eggs as a sign of new life at Easter. Some of them used to forgo eggs during the season of lent too. They also rear hares and rabbits in their backyard.
When Easter comes the parents hide painted eggs in the garden, children are supposed to find them; and when they find it they are overjoyed with pride and curiosity. They ask their parents, how are there eggs in the garden? The parents tell them that the rabbits have laid them. Children laugh and ask, do rabbits lay eggs? The parents use that occasion to drive home a message that they must have already heard in the Easter vigil service in the church: if resurrection is possible every good is possible. The children again ask, okay rabbits have laid eggs, but how are these painted and decorated eggs? Again the parents repeat the chorus, if resurrection is possible, every good is possible.
To be an Easter people is to believe that every good thing, however impossible it may look, is possible with God.
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