Isn't there more?

We are on the other side of Easter.  Does it surprise you that the gospel writers spend so much effort on detailing the accounts of Jesus' crucifixion, yet very little is made of his post-resurrection encounters?  Most scholars would say that the original Gospel of Mark ends with the woman running from the tomb afraid to say anything.   Are we surprised later readers decided to add something more?

What can we make of this?  I am reminded that Charlie Brown once was having a conversation with Linus, and he said something to the effect that we have two ears and only one mouth because listening is more important than speaking.  Applying the same logic, it would seem that to the authors of the Gospels, the crucifixion is more important than Jesus' appearances following the resurrection.  How is it then that we want to skip over the crucifixion and get right to the good stuff.

Maybe that's the point.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer would accuse us of desiring cheap grace.  Love without cost.  Glory without sacrifice.  Community in Christ without commitment.  In other words, cheap grace is another way we try to place ourselves at the center of the narrative while God simply serves us our whims and desires on a cross shaped platter.

This last week I got an email from someone who attended one of our Holy Week services, and he put it this way;

I came to [worship] for some morsels, really expecting only the appetizer before the main course.  I came away filled up, stuffed to the gills!  Great message last evening, you were filled with a passion and a desire that can only be from God.

When a pastor gets an email like this, you don't readily forget it.   Upon further reflection, however, I realize that as a pastor and as a people of faith, we often see the passion simply as the prelim prior to the promise of Easter.  The passion is the thing we have to get through to get to the main course.  

I do not wish to soft peddle what transpired that first Easter morning, or the significance Easter has on the way I look at life, but I believe the Gospel writers spend so much papyrus on the passion because the church that will be proclaiming this Good News will likely suffer the same fate as did Jesus.  Even as the disciples and their followers boldly proclaim Christ's resurrection, they are paying for this privilege with their lives.  The cross stands before them as much as it does behind them.

In the Gospels death and life are tied together far too tightly for our modern taste.  Yes, there is life after death, but the Gospels will not deny that to follow Christ is the pathway toward death first!  Or as Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote some 70 years ago, 'The call to follow Christ is the call to come and die.'  On that note, Happy Easter!

Peace,
Pastor Al