I once had a professor who said that if Christianity was only about one man dying and coming back to life, then there would be no such thing as Christianity. The experience of being a Christian must be internalized by its followers in order to mean or do what it was intended. By dying, in an allegorical sense, one may discover the opportunity to live a better life and to develop a deep sense of persistence in the face of adversity. So, as Jesus died, we too must die. But we must all die in a way that seems contradictory and beyond common logic — we must die while remaining alive. By Jesus’ death, a great lesson has been imparted to us all. There’s got to be a lesson, right? I mean, what’s the point in actively embracing a religion that does nothing for you and only serves to ruin your life and make you feel like crap?
I tried to explain this idea to a friend like this: “Let’s say Johnny gets some devestating news (well, as bad as the worst bummer news that a college student typically gets). He shuts down, closes his blinds and turns off all the lights. For the next three days Johnny cuts classes, calls off work and doesn’t move from his couch except to down another bottle of cheap whiskey and take a piss. Now on that third day, in just a brief moment of clarity, he realizes that the news wasn’t so bad. While he refused to go on, he still went on. On that day, Johnny smashed the bottles, opened the blinds and let the light shine in. That is what Jesus’ death and resurrection means to me.”
My friend became silent. Then, he looked off into the distance and said, “No. That’s wrong. That’s not right.” As I recall that may have been the last thing that he said to me for the rest of the day, so I couldn’t be sure as to what was so wrong about my story. I mean, there was a guy named Johnny. There’s no keeping anyone’s anonymity here. There was, in fact, a three day orgy of whiskey where attendance at work and classes wasn’t happening. And looking all around the room, there was undeniable proof for the existance of empty whiskey bottles. I can’t be sure what was wrong, but I can stand to guess. In his mind, Jesus was some thing to be hung up on a wall. Jesus was a label that was easy to apply. “Hey, I’m a Christian!” “Wow, I’m a Christian too!” “You don’t say? Guess who’s praising Jesus right now?” And just as easily as that label could be applied, for his kind, it could be taken off. To him, Jesus was the new orange. Or the new plaid. Or even the new fuschia. To him, Jesus wasn’t even a person. And he definitely wasn’t the teacher that gave his all to teach the most important lesson ever to those who were open to learning it.
Now, I bear my friend no ill will. If he wants to live his life with his version of Jesus, that’s his business. I happen to believe in finding lessons in those times where life hands you lemons, even if the lemons happen to be nails and the person handing them to you happens to be a crucifix. Now this lesson of how to be reborn in a practical sense would make a great message for an Easter sermon at a liberal Christian congregation. I fear, though, that this important lesson is missing from many orthodox and fundamentalist congregations this Easter Sunday.
While that would be a great message for an Easter Sunday sermon, that is not the real meaning of Easter. While we are advised to persevere in our daily lives, there is a grave warning to America within the story. Jesus didn’t just happen to wake up on the crucifix and say, “How the hell did this happen?” No, there were forces at work that put him there. In church services and Biblical discussions, I’ve seen too many people quick to point out that Jews were responsible. But that’s just a convenient little distraction from the real culprit. In Jesus’ day, the entire world revolved around Rome and its Emperor’s will. Was it not Rome that sentenced Jesus? In an effort to eradicate this teacher and his ideas, Roman officials condemned Jesus to crucifixtion. Three days after his death, he rose from the dead and showed Rome, the most powerful government on earth at that time, that he could even overcome death. Death — that’s the real final frontier. And Jesus conquered it. Moreso, he showed us that we can conquer it, since this wasn’t his home and it sure as hell isn’t ours. We’re just passers by! Surely if death itself could be defeated, how hard could a Roman legion be? Or even the entirety of the Roman Empire itself.
But what about the most powerful nation on the planet today? If Jesus were around today, advocating the things that he advocated in his time, what would be the reception that he would receive from the American government? There used to be this great Christian ad campaign asking “What Would Jesus Do?” Jesus might preach that “no man can serve two masters.” This might cause some problems with the crowd who thinks that Jesus and America are one-in-the-same. But it is something that we need to realize. As Americans, we can always think that we’re on the side of right. That America can do no wrong, but what would Jesus think? Would he approve of the neo-con inspired American war machine? “He who lives by the sword will die by the sword,” he might say. It’s clear that on Judgement Day, many will get the Final Jeopardy question wrong. They will ask what it is to be a good American, when they should be asking what it is to be a good Christian.
But even more to the point is that, should Jesus decide that America really isn’t that Christian of a nation, how does this fare for the United States? One of the most oft-cited reasons for the fall of Rome was the pressure from barbarian invaders. The other reason was Christianity’s influence upon the empire. Maybe it was all of those well-meaning Christian politicians. Either by rising from the dead or by planting the seed in his followers, he got the job done. But on any account, we should take heed this Easter season and be certain that Christians put their eggs in the right basket, pun intended. Nations rise and fall. But that spark which Jesus pointed to in all of us endures forever and is the greatest power of them all.
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