Posts Tagged ‘Passion of the Christ’

Christ is alive (today!)

April 13, 2024

Easter 3 – 2024

Luke 24:36b-48

Marian Free

In the name of God who meets us on the road and inflames our hearts with the Holy Spirit. Amen.

There have been a number of attempts to tell the gospel story through drama, film or musical. I think of Godspel, Jesus Christ Superstar, Jesus of Montreal, and The Passion of the Christ to name a few. Each has contributed to making the story relevant for a new generation.  Where they fall down, I believe, is in their attempt to portray the resurrection. Jesus of Montreal, which tells the story of a modern-day Passion play. When the lead player (Jesus) is killed in an accident, his organs are donated and we are to understand that he lives on in those whose lives he saved. Mel Gibson concludes the Passion of the Christ with the depiction of a ghost-like figure rising from the ledge and leaving the tomb.

One reason that the resurrection is so hard to depict is that there were no eye-witnesses to the actual event. Jesus was dead and then he was not. There was no one to tell us how the crucified and very dead Jesus, was re-enlivened three days later.  Mark, Luke and John tell us that when the women arrive to anoint Jesus the tomb is already open and Jesus gone. Matthew tells us that the women witness the rolling away of the stone, and that angels tell them that Jesus is not there. Accounts of the risen Jesus are few and those that we have are vague and contradictory. Paul tells us simply that Jesus appeared to the twelve and then to 500. Mark tells us that angels told the women that Jesus had been raised, but that the women were too frightened and amazed to tell anyone. In Matthew the disciples see the risen Jesus in Galilee where he commissions them for ministry before ascending into heaven. Only Luke and John report more detailed encounters with the risen Jesus. 

Last week we read of Jesus’ appearance in a locked room and of a second appearance a week later for the sake of Thomas. Today we read Luke’s version of what is presumably the same event.  There are a number of similarities which lead to this conclusion. In both accounts Jesus appears at a place where the disciples are gathered, and in both Jesus shows them his scars to convince them that it is really him. Both authors seem to at pains to emphasise Jesus’ bodily presence despite his ghostly. He might be able to appear and disappear at will, but his scars can be touched, and he is able to eat the fish that is provided. 

I suspect that the reason why there are so few accounts of the risen Christ is that 

the first disciples struggled to put into words an experience that was totally without precedence. It is clear that the disciples were convinced that Jesus was alive, but while Jesus was the same, he was also very different from the earthly Jesus. His body bore the scars of crucifixion, but the risen Christ could apparently appear and disappear at will. The first disciples, and therefore the Evangelists had to find a way to share with others something that was incomprehensible, but  which they knew to be true.  This situation was undoubtedly made more complicated by the fact that Jesus didn’t hang around. The first disciples want to share with others their conviction that Jesus had risen from the dead, that he was alive and present with them, but Jesus – still alive – had ascended into heaven. How much easier it would have been if the risen Jesus had continued his work of teaching and healing! How much easier would it have been if people other than the disciples had seen him! How much easier would it have been if they could point to Jesus working in their midst! The disciples are trying to share with the world that Jesus is alive when there is no living, breathing Jesus to show them.

Perhaps the disciples began by sharing their experiences with others who had known and followed Jesus: “he appeared to us even though the doors were locked”, “he was walking beside us on the road”, “he showed us his scars”, “he broke bread”, “he ate some fish” in our presence.  That there are so few stories may reflect the fact that the conviction that Jesus was alive was so powerful that others couldn’t help but believe that it was true. Even those who didn’t see the risen Jesus, experienced his risen presence in a such a way that they couldn’t keep the experience to themselves. Jesus was just there among them, nothing more needed to be said. Even though Jesus had ascended into heaven sufficient people were convinced that in some inexplicable way that the risen Christ was still present with them, that others began to know and experience Jesus’ risen presence.

This, I contend, is why we continue to believe in the resurrection. We do not need to rely on historical records, or firsthand accounts because despite the paucity of hard evidence and the contradictory accounts of the witnesses, all these centuries later we know Jesus to be alive and present with us. We may not always be able to put the experience into words, but we know the living Christ who offers words of consolation, who walks beside us on the road and who enters into the locked rooms of our hearts when we are feeling lost and alone. We know the living Christ who energises and inspires us and whose presence gives us the courage to do things that we might have thought impossible. And because we know the wonder of the living Christ, we cannot keep it to ourselves, but need to share our knowledge with anyone who will listen.

We know the risen Christ, not because we have been told that he rose from the dead, but because we know him here in our common worship, we know him here in the those who share our belief and we know him here in our hearts and in our lives.

Christ is not alive because the Bible says he is. Christ is not alive because some people saw him before he ascended into heaven. Christ is alive because he lives in us.

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The resurrection – an event without witnesses

April 8, 2023

Easter Day – 2023
Matthew 28:1-8
Marian Free

Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

In the final scene of Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ, a translucent figure (Jesus) rises from the slab in the tomb and walks out of view. It is a somewhat anti-climatic end to a movie that had been dominated by violence and drama. But how else I wonder, could Gibson have portrayed the resurrection? Unlike the empty tomb, which by all accounts was witnessed by a number of disciples, there were no witnesses to the resurrection. Indeed, on close inspection, the gospel accounts are tantalisingly unhelpful when it comes to details about the actual resurrection. No matter which gospel we read, the story is the same – by the time the women had reached the tomb, Jesus had already risen from the dead and left the (still sealed) tomb, unnoticed by anyone.

If Gibson’s depiction of the resurrection is a little disappointing, so too are the gospel accounts, which are very short on drama and which in fact, do not even mention the actual resurrection. More astounding, according to the gospels, Jesus did not hang around to see if anyone would come. In the briefest account of events, that of Mark, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary find to their surprise that the stone has been rolled away from the tomb (answering their question as to who would move it). A young man seated in the tomb tells them that Jesus has been raised and shows them where he had been lying. Jesus himself does not appear. According to Luke, the women came to the tomb only to find it open, and the body gone. Angels tell the women that Jesus is risen, but Jesus himself does not appear to anyone at all until later in the day. In John’s gospel, Mary Magdalene arrives at the tomb and sees that the stone has been rolled away. She runs to report to the others that Jesus body has been moved. Later, after Peter and John have confirmed that the tomb is empty, Jesus appears to Mary.

Of all the accounts, that of Matthew is the most dramatic. When the two Marys arrive at the tomb an earthquake signals the appearance of an angel who moves the stone to reveal an empty tomb. As in Mark, the angel informs the women Jesus has already risen and shows them where Jesus had lain. Jesus, who is not at the tomb, meets the women as they make their way to report to the disciples that Jesus has risen. The disciples themselves will not see Jesus until they make their way from Jerusalem back to Galilee. Even then, Jesus will not hang around, but having given his disciples their final instructions, he will ascend into heaven.

All we know for certain then is that sometime between the crucifixion and the morning after the Sabbath, Jesus rose from the dead and had left the tomb – leaving the stone in place. In other words, the most extraordinary claim of our faith – resurrection of Jesus – took place without fanfare and without an audience. We don’t know what happened or how it happened. We only know that Jesus’ disciples know that he has risen because he appeared to them – after he had first appeared to the women.

Gibson’s understated depiction of the resurrection is true to the gospel accounts of the event. The resurrection was not, as we might have expected it to be, an earth shattering, ground-breaking event – just the opposite. It occurred quietly and unobtrusively and without a single witness.

What a waste of an opportunity! Imagine the capital that could have been made by a very public, explosive event! Imagine If Jesus had chosen to stay in Jerusalem. Jerusalem was, after all, still filled with the pilgrims that had swelled its population for the Passover. What better place to announce Jesus’ victory over death, his triumph over his enemies? What better occasion to prove his detractors wrong? Why would he not use this opportunity to proclaim that he is indeed the Christ – the one sent by God? Why make the journey to the relative obscurity of Galilee and why, when there, does he only reveal himself to his disciples?

Why indeed? Because this is the whole point of the gospel. As we should know by now, Jesus was not an attention getter. In fact, the story of Jesus’ ministry ends as it began, with Jesus’ absolute refusal to be tempted to behave in any way that would attract acclaim, power, or glory. As with the earthly Jesus, so with the risen Jesus. He does not want to attract followers who are only interested in the hype – the miracles and the extra-ordinary. The risen Jesus, as was the earthly Jesus, is looking for followers who are there for the long haul, who will stick by him through thick and thin – followers who will take up their cross and follow him, followers who will not fall by the wayside when the going gets tough, followers who understand that faith is about relationship with Jesus and with the one true God, not about a life that is shielded from struggle and suffering.

We forget this at our peril.

Faith is not a series of dramatic, life-changing events, but a relationship based on the quiet assurance that Christ is alive and is as present to us as he was to his disciples. This is the message that we have to share – not that an all-powerful God will miraculously free us from all minor irritations and all serious inconveniences, but that God, in the risen Jesus is a constant presence with us – a source of peace, hope and strength. A God who may not prevent our suffering but will come alongside us in our distress. A God who does not seek power, and glory for their own sake, but who was prepared to abandon heaven, to show us how much we are loved.

Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

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