I found myself wondering, briefly, yesterday, whether I really believe that Jesus rose from the dead.
If I’m honest, when asked whether I believe in a literal, bodily resurrection, the truth is, I don’t know. I realised though that it doesn’t matter. I believe in resurrection. I believe in everything Easter means, everything it means for me in my life, everything it tells us about who God is and what God does, everything it teaches us about love, and life and the power of love to conquer and triumph over everything. As I get older and grow in faith I’m realising that the literal historical accuracy of those biblical stories is largely irrelevant, it’s not what matters.
I wrote something similar at Christmas. I wrote about how I don’t know if I literally believe in the incarnation, but that I choose to believe in it because it’s important. I need the God who stoops down to become human, to share in our experience, to become one of us, so that we can have relationship. I need the love of God.
Whilst I need the tenderness and the sacrifice of the love of God offered in the incarnation, I need the power of the love of God offered in the resurrection.
A love that cannot be stopped by violence and hatred. A love that cannot be contained in the grave. A love that cannot be defeated by death. A love that triumphs over everything.
I need to know that love exists, not just for the reassurance it provides to me that the shitstorm I see when I turn on the news will not prevail, not just for the cosmic assurance that death is not the end but for the power that love breathes into my life day after day.
That love, the love that has triumphed over death is available to me, that love, the thing we call “God” or “The Holy Spirit” or perhaps “the universe” or “energy” or “life force” or “Chi” or simply “love” depending on our tradition, belief system and place in the world, that love is available to all of us, and it has the power to triumph over evil, over death, over everything.
You know what that means? It means that we have the power to triumph over evil, over hatred, over death, through the power of divine love. I read an argument this morning that the resurrection encourages Christians to palm off their responsibility onto God, to simply look at the mess around them and say “It’s okay, Jesus defeats all this” and sit back and leave it to him. To feel better about uncertainty and death and the very realities of living in this world because we have a supernatural belief that God will make it all okay in the end.
I don’t think that’s the case though. The resurrection compels us. The resurrection reminds us that suffering is not our whole story, that darkness and violence and evil are not the victors in the human story. It reminds us that we too can rise, can stand up against the powerful forces of darkness we see at work in the world today, and that we can be victorious, because we are filled with the spirit of resurrection, filled with the redemptive and triumphant love that never lies down, even when nailed to a cross, it pushes us to be that love, to be the resurrection, to be Christ in this world.
Did the resurrection have to literally happen for us to live in the truth of the power of who we can be if we fill our lives with God’s love? I’m not sure, but perhaps it’s what we need to believe in to be able to grasp the ultimate strength of the force available to us, so for now I am more than happy, in fact I am overjoyed to raise my voice and say “Christ is risen. Hallelujah!”
