Is He Risen?

Easter is absolutely the most polarizing holiday in Western culture. Some simply anesthetize the controversy of the most remarkable claim in human history, you know, the one about a man who claimed to be the Son of God who physically rose from the dead, with Easter eggs and chocolate bunnies. Others think Christians are absolutely insane.

So what is the legacy of Easter to you? An empty tomb or an empty promise?  Is the whole notion of Jesus rising from the dead the "Frankenstein" of human religion or is it a mythological story penned by pathologically grieving disciples? Maybe there wasn't this disenfranchised Judas, the most trusted guy in the bunch who Jesus appointed as treasurer of his "band of brothers." Maybe there was no crucifixion at all, perhaps Jesus was a carpenter fellow and this whole story of death on a cross is about some guy who was deified posthumously.

What do all of these stories of the resurrection prove anyway? Is the resurrection of Jesus Christ a historical fact or is it fiction? Certainly there are opposing positions on the bible narrative. Islam claims that Christ was a prophet, not God incarnate, as no God-equal would himself to suffer the humility of persecution and death on a cross. God simply would not do this. Christ was a prophet, a notion that Muslim people at least admit openly. He was indeed mortally wounded, but suffered unconsciousness and regained cerebral perfusion after being entombed for a few hours. Besides, Christians are polytheists believing in a "trinity" or 3 gods. Pagans, infidels, lost people who worship the pope and have sex at the center of their culture.

Besides, was Jesus really dead? I mean the fact that the staff sergeant on duty broke the legs of the other two men crucified with him and shoved a spear into the thorax of this Jesus guy, well it probably means he was only wounded when he was taken down from the cross, right? A little IV fluids, some putting his legs up on a pillow, and yes - Jesus good as new in a couple of hours.

Listen, I know you don't want to hear the sublime monotheism explanation offered by evangelical Christians, do you? There are many things in the biblical narrative that defy any rational explanation -  a virgin birth. Yes, come on you don't really believe that do you? Who would claim such a thing? A risen Christ, why bother? This man, Jesus, is dead. Let him rest in peace.

Imagine you are not a Christian in first century Palestine, you are walking along a dusty road and you hear this story of this prophet or teacher or whatever you want to call him - was recently arrested for civil disobedience and that his misfit followers were all scattered because they also feared for their lives.

After all, this Lazarus story (see prior blog entry) was circulating around town and you were in a hurry to get to Jerusalem. It is early Sunday morning and this story about some women going to cemetery to put a few flowers on the grave are now reporting that he is alive again. What does it mean to you?

There are many reasons why you should not believe this story. First of all, any good Jewish man will tell you that women are not allowed to testify in a court of law. The WORST WITNESS you could have, if you were trying to prove some legal or historical fact, was to have a WOMAN testify on your behalf.  Women are naturally more charitably inclined to embellish their stories. If you were trying to popularize some story about a Messiah rising from the dead - definitely put a woman on the witness stand. Oh, also put a fisherman who denied he even knew you a few hours before on the stand. Oh, also call this fisherman the "rock" on which you build this new religion. Definitely a plus, don't you think?

Also, don't draw any attention to your funeral. In fact, die penny-less. Borrow someone's tomb as you know lots of people are going to show up for your funeral.

Speaking of funerals. Who was this Jesus, the president or something? Why post soldiers around his grave? Did we miss the parade through the rotunda or the flag-draped coffin somewhere? Besides, there's some misunderstanding about all of these Roman soldiers falling asleep on the job. I see this happening a lot at funerals, don't you?

OK, what about the state funeral procession for this Galilean? After all, wasn't he in Jeruselum the week before and thousands of people were waiving palm leaves as he rode into town on a donkey, side-saddled, like King David.  Everyone knows that carpenters from Nazareth (especially those that belong to the carpenter's union and have expanded fringe benefits)  have expensive funerals and soldiers posted by their government-sealed burial sites, right?

Also, the accounts of the resurrection are all messed up by these women. Most likely they just saw a ghost. Everyone knows that when you lose a loved one, well you just miss them so much it just sort of happens that you don't sleep well the night after the funeral and people bring all these strange foods to your house that cause you to have bad dreams.

Don't you agree? Tell me what you think.

Postmortem Destiny?

Shows like FOX's  "Fringe" show autopsies and dead bodies strung around the crime scene. I especially like Fringe because the plot line involves a somewhat "confused" Dr. Walter Bishop played by John Noble. He is sort of a professor type genius who has memory problems, but solves complex crimes other investigators won't touch. There is Walter's son, Peter, who doesn't really have pleasant memories of his childhood and has carried years of remorse over how his dad treated him. There's a tension there, Peter calls his father "Walter" rather than "dad."  Yet, Walter has moments of lucidity about he treated his son and there is a remorse in some of the things he did to Peter as a child.  Agent Olivia Dunham (played by Anna Torv) is a young FBI agent assigned to multi-agency task force that oversees Walter's (Dr. Bishop) work so he doesn't get too strange with his requests.  Agent Dunham takes on the "special" cases and immediately calls on Walter when something borders on the "weird."

Americans are obsessed with death and shows like "Fringe." We love to mix up crime and science fiction in our entertainment and speculate about death. There is something about seeing a dead body close up or an autopsy being performed with blood spattering. We also like to hear the grinding noise of a saw blade cutting into skull and the "plop" of the brain falling into a metal basin. We love it when the pathologists sips on his Coke or bite's his Godfather pizza as he lifts the liver out of a body cavity.

Most of us in the health science professions have been to an autopsy before. I took human anatomy and physiology at both the University of Colorado and the University of Iowa. Many times I've taken bodies to the morgue. When I was in the Air Force in the "70s" this happened a lot and late at night.  I have some funny stories too, but I won't tell them here. Anyway, in medicine we call an autopsy a "postmortem" exam or "post" for short. 

About 2000 years ago there was a postmortem exam on someone named Lazarus. There also was a woman like Agent Olivia who was deeply involved in the investigation into his illness and the non-arrival of help when she needed it. Her name was Martha and she was also a member of a multi-agency task force. This small family lived in Bethany, a small village about 2 miles from Jerusalem. Martha and her sister Mary were "old maids" of sorts, they argued over spiritual things. Both followed the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. They sent a message to him to when Lazarus got sick, they'd seen him cure people of illnesses like this before. Does Jesus have a memory like "Walter"?

Do you ever feel like God forgets? I know I do. When I want him to intervene in my problems immediately, it seldom happens. When the disciples saw him reading Mary and Martha's message, they sort of shrugged it off. Jesus said Lazarus was "sleeping."  They thought he had taken too much Ambien. John 11:7 says that Jesus stayed 2 more days before they departed to Bethany.

Can you imagine the scene when Jesus finally arrives? There had been a large funeral, everyone had seen the dead body, everyone had been a witness to the death. How many were there? Possibly several hundred, but it isn't recorded.  When word spread that Jesus was coming to town the number of people present rose exponentially. Some were friends of Jesus and some were not. I would venture to say there were more "NOTS" than friends. They wanted to accuse him. He healed others, doesn't he look out after his own friends?

What kind of words do you say to a widow a funeral? Do you stutter a bit? How is it that death leaves us speechless? It truly does. But, Jesus was late to his friend's aid and he was late to the funeral. The body was already in the tomb. Flowers were wilting, the women still dressed in black. Trust me, if Walter knew what was about to happen, the good doctor would wat to be there.

Second question, have you ever been late to a funeral?

Martha is a lot like Agent Olivia in the sense she always gets to the heart of the issue. She is very objective and analytical.  When we hurt, when we experience loss, we become a lot like Martha. We start to analyze and comb the evidence. Anyway, Martha comes running down the road when Jesus nears the village and she simple says to Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died."

Listen, if you don't know the rest of the story. I beg you to finish reading John 11. Lazarus was dead, his body did stink, his tomb was sealed, and his friends and enemies all watched what happened in plain daylight. So many, in fact, that Jesus own death was plotted that very day. It made that many people mad that he was raise up a dead man on the sabbath.

If you doubt that Lazarus was raised up, consider the "party" the following week where all the skeptics could come and ask him and his sisters questions. Would would you have asked Lazarus? I wonder what "Walter" would have said to Jesus?

It begs the question, if this even actually happened... what does it mean?  Have you ever seriously considered the notion that Jesus Christ from Nazareth is about to conquer death. It doesn't matter how smelly, how morbid, how gross you thing the topic is. Life isn't about splatters it is about what matters. Send me a note or write something here, I welcome your comments!