Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Lent Bible Reading Challenge Day 37

The Resurrection

Luke 24:1-11

I flew back to Oakland from a rapid trip to Orange County tonight. On the flight I finally managed to read a thin book I bought recently talking about the historicity of Holy Week (Francois Bovon, The Last Days of Jesus). It had a lot of ideas to chew on and digest...so the 2 hours alone were a gift. Bovon traces the history of the last week of Jesus' life - what we call Holy Week - the week we're currently in. In his introduction he writes, "In history, we must remember, bare facts are irretrievable: an event can be viewed only through the mediating language that narrates and, in narrating, interprets it. Any witness will reconstruct, according to a particular understanding of the events, how the events unfolded." This isn't because of some sort of manipulative idea to provide propoganda, but because we all provide interpretations of what we experience - we see differently, feel uniquely, understand diversely, and use language in ways that are particular to our minds, bodies, cultures, age, gender, native language, and life-experiences.

He goes on talking about the week, then ending with Easter...and the resurrection accounts (what today's reading is about). It struck me in a new way...Jesus is the same yet different. He's resurrected not ressuscitated. He's old and new. He's the same yet unrecognizable. Here's what Bovon says (pp. 64-65).

"New Testament exegetes [studiers of the Bible texts] frequently distinguish between two types of Easter narratives: between appearance stories and empty-tomb stories. In the first type, the resurrected Christ appears to an individual or a group, showing himself to be fully alive. Often the wintenesses to the appearance have difficulty recongnizing the Risen One, a fact that attests to a new quality of life the Crucified now manifests. His resurrection passes beyond the resuscitation of Lazarus, for Jesus does more than merely recuperate his lost viatality. He actually recovers his divine identity, an identity now tinged by the particular experiences of his incarnation and passion. He is evidently so transformed that Mary Magdalene originally mistkes him for the gardener (John 20:15). The disciples also stuggle to recognize him during their encounter on the lake shore (John 21:4-7). In the Emmaus episode too, it takes the breaking of the bread for the two disciples' eyes to be opened to his identity (Luke 24:30-31). In the Gospel of John as well, narrative details depict the qualitatively new identity of the Risen One. A locked room on an upper floor poses no difficulty to the Johannine Christ, who enters mysteriously into the midst of those gathered there (John 20:19, 26). Lest such behavior lead some to confuse these apprearances with those of a ghost, the Lukan Christ proposes to eat in the disciples' presence and shares a morsel of grilled fish with them (Luke 24:41-43)."

I think it's something we can only experience - never truly understand....a mystery (see yesterday's entry), of course that doesn't mean that we shouldn't try, seeking to grapple mysteries with our intellects, cultures, historical research, philisophical musings, political perspectives, and humor. But maybe the answer that explains or "justifies" the questions we have isn't a fact, a simple statement of truth or even a forced acceptance of beliefe, but rather a relational step of daring to enter into a relationship with what or who emerged from that emptied tomb.