How much would I have to hate you?

Life is too short and painful and precious for anything other than love. There is no time to spare for hatred.
But you should know, this is not going to be an emotional post. I despise wishful thinking and detest emotional decision making. I won’t compel you to engage in either behaviour, that would make me a hypocrite. But I’d also be a hypocrite if I didn’t share this information, in fact, how much would I have to hate you not to tell you?

Today is often known as “Silent Saturday.”
For Christians it marks the day after Jesus Christ was crucified and buried and the day before He rose from the dead.
For non -Christians it marks the first of twenty one centuries worth of “silent Saturdays” of Christians deluding themselves.
I too often privately wondered if it was wishful thinking. I don’t want to blindly believe Jesus rose from the dead, nor would I want anyone else to.
I resist the idea of ever coming to a conviction that is rooted in a fantasy.

But reality is often stranger than fiction, and as a former student and now teacher of literature, I am haunted by humans. In particular, I am perplexed by the accounts of the strange human behaviour in the immediate aftermath of the crucifixion of Jesus.

First, the women.
Jesus compassion and respect for these women had been counter-cultural; their care for and commitment to him is shown in their willingness to go to his grave and care for his body. That Sunday dawn, they went to the tomb carrying myrrh and burial materials. They were expecting a body. They truly believed he was dead. In a final act of tenderness to seal a tragedy, they went to weep over him, lovingly prepare his body and walk away. That should have been the end of the story. But their story is that when they got there, there was no body there. One woman even claimed she saw and held a physical Jesus and spoke with him for herself. These women lived in a misogynistic society in which women were not even considered valid witnesses in court. Their voices were too often silenced, just as they are today. The fact that their account has survived centuries of gender injustice to reach the eyes and ears of 21st century people is remarkable in and of itself

And the men?
They acted in a way that was radically counter cultural on two levels.
When these women rushed back to tell the former disciples of Jesus their story, it would have been easy to dismiss these women as being emotional, deluded and superstitious. Instead they took these women at their word and went to see for themselves.
Prior to this,they had been in hiding in fear from the authorities since the execution of Jesus, yet despite that and despite the knowledge that Roman soldiers, who could have killed them brutally and instantly, were meant to be guarding the tomb, they ran there.
No one would run with such urgency to possible death unless they thought there was some way of verifying the veracity of the women’s statement. It goes against our intrinsic instinct of self preservation.

But none of that means Jesus definitely rose from the dead.

Let’s just say they did find a body?
I know what I would have done.
I would have wept, to see a beloved friends body, bloody, brutally broken, wrapped in burial cloths, definitely dead, would have broken my heart.
And then I would have walked away, permanently haunted by the ignominious death of an innocent man.
You have to admit, that would be the most human and logical response.
So why did these men and women in the gospel narratives not weep and walk away? They were ordinary men and women. They do not strike me as suicidal or opportunists or fantasists. Some of them were cynics once themselves.

Even atheists have been puzzled, one commented:
“If you remove the resurrection of Jesus, you are left with a puzzle.
Who met Mary in the garden that first Easter Day?
Who appeared to the disciples three times?
Who appeared to over five hundred people in Jerusalem after the crucifixion?Was it a phantom? Was it a fake? Were they lying?
Possibly.
But then, you have to wonder why. Why those who concocted the fake were willing to spend uncomfortable lives as missionaries, undergoing shipwrecks, persecutions and stonings, preaching this illusion with unwavering conviction, or why or how they found the courage to die martyrs deaths defending this lie?”

The most plausible answer splits the marrow from the bone. I would not die for a lie. I have been fully convinced, with my head and heart that it is the truth.

So what if Jesus did rise from the dead?

There is far more evidence to consider than I have referenced in this post. But if Jesus did rise from the dead, then He was who He said He was. We can no longer dismiss him as a good teacher or as a liar or lunatic. This makes Him Lord, this makes Him the Son of God, it makes Him nothing less than the Way, the Truth and the Life, in a world of short cuts, deception and death.

But why is it that dangerous? I’ll leave you with a quote from a much cleverer writer than me:

“The most dangerous idea in human history and philosophy remains the belief that Jesus Christ was the Son of God and rose from the dead and that is the most dangerous idea you will ever encounter, because it alters the whole of human behaviour and all our responsibilities. It turns the universe from a meaningless chaos into a designed place in which there is justice and there is hope and, therefore, we all have a duty to discover the nature of that justice and work towards that hope. It alters us all. If we reject it, it alters us all as well. It is incredibly dangerous. It’s why so many people turn against it.”

And am I a wishful thinker?
No. I am a Christian because Jesus has saved me. I have considered the scientific, archaeological, historical, literary and psychological evidence, but it was Christ and only Christ who used all of that to draw me to Himself. And He drew me, not merely to a conviction, or world view, but to Himself. I started this blog post talking about hate, but ultimately I was moved from intellectual conviction and won over to whole -hearted assurance by His life altering love for me. I haven’t even skimmed the surface of who Jesus or what He has done is in this post. I cannot make you believe, only implore you to consider who He is for yourself. The gospel is the most offensive yet loving news I could ever share with you and because I really believe it to be true, I would hate you if I didn’t share it with you.

Today is important because it hinges on everything that happens tomorrow.

Saturday may be silent but I know Sunday is coming, and with it, the Son.

Happy Easter!

With all the love in the world,
Bethany

PS. If you want to chat about anything, any of this, please drop me a message, I will always be more than happy to chat!