|
What really happened? Those of us who are steeped in the “who, what, when, where, and why” of modern journalism want to know…what really happened there at that garden tomb? We who spend our waiting minutes in grocery aisles scanning the headlines written for our “inquiring minds” want the eye-witness account, preferably combined with live-action, digitally-enhanced pictures. What really happened at that first-century tomb? Today, of all days, we want to know, we need to know.
I learned one answer to that question in my seminary preaching class back in the early 1980s. The answer I was given to believe was that what happened at that tomb was the essence of mythology. I also learned that, if one wanted to keep one’s ministerial job, one never, ever, even considered preaching that message on Easter Sunday morning! The voice of my homiletics professor still rings in my ears, “Do not, I repeat,” he said, “do not ever use the ‘m’ word—myth—in any Easter Sunday message.” Friends, please be assured I am not looking for work, nor do I want to be, but I do believe it is high time for us to face this theological dilemma directly. Is the resurrection story a myth? I have come to believe… yes…and no.
Look again at the gospel story with me and we begin to see how the resurrection story is the essence of great mythology! In each of the four accounts and especially in the one we read this morning from the gospel according to Luke, the story of the resurrection of Jesus contains the elements of high-quality, enduring mythological narrative. There is mystery, majesty, bigger-than-life characters, angelic beings, an unexpected and fantastic twist to the story line, a quality of disbelief juxtaposed with simple faith…it’s all there. Explore other ancient mythological drama in the variety of religious traditions, and you will find similar elements. Webster’s definition of mythology supports what we find in the gospel accounts of the resurrection. I quote from the dictionary that mythology is “a body of myths, that is, traditional stories of historical events that serve to unfold part of the world view of a people or explain a practice, belief, or natural phenomenon; especially the myths dealing with the gods, demigods, and legendary heroes of a particular people and usually involving supernatural elements.” Nowhere in that entire definition is there any mention of mythology being untrue—in fact, it is just the opposite: myths are stories arising out of historical events that serve to inform or mold our beliefs.
Check out the long narrative of our ancestors in faith, and, frankly, the word “mythology” as defined by Webster, is a golden thread woven through the whole of the biblical narrative. Amazing things happen in the biblical stories in which God is present. Wondrous, outlandish, unbelievable occurrences are par-for-the-course when Spirit takes hold. In the life of Jesus, miraculous healings and incredible life-changing teachings follow one upon the other.
We see the centrality of myth and its meaning throughout the biblical narrative…Jesus hold up a little mustard seed and uses it to symbolize the transforming power of God in one’s life…an exodus of people from slavery to freedom honored in this season of Passover recalls the journey of faith each of us travels in one way or another…and that empty tomb we honor this morning dares to declare that in the face of death—any death—death of an unhealthy habit, death of a person, of a relationship, of a deeply-held opinion—the tomb trumpets that in the face of any death we can experience or imagine, there is always the possibility of new life. Friends, these are only a few of the great themes of our faith, and if it were not for the mythology of the resurrection—the story quality, the larger-than-life plot line and the fantastic characters included therein—our own faith story would be bereft of much of its transforming power. Each of these biblical stories provides a necessary image of who we are and what we believe as a people of faith. Is the resurrection story a myth? You bet…in the very best sense of that word. For embedded in this story and in the parade of biblical narratives that preface it is the life’s blood of our faith…traditional stories of historical events that serve to unfold part of a world view…a world view that we hold dear…a world view that says unequivocally, “God is present and active and when recognized, new life will emerge!”
Now I realize that, especially on Easter Sunday, we may be just a tad hesitant to use the word “myth” in describing what happened at that climactic moment of our shared faith story, for we have come to assume that myth is about things that are untrue. Nice stories perhaps, but not for real. Fantastic elements, but far removed from the joys and concerns of our daily lives. Both my study of Irish mythology and my own very personal journey with this Christian resurrection narrative have convinced me otherwise. Mythological narratives, and especially this one we read this morning, are true at their core, and their truth is far-reaching. These stories are true, because they speak about universal truths of our relationship with the Divine—like life, life abundant, life beyond death. They are true, because they inspire us to believe in something and someone beyond ourselves—a risen Christ, a very-present friend, a God who walks with us on any Emmaus road. These narratives are gospel truth, not because someone said they were, but because they call forth the best in us—the best compassion, the best love, the best in hoping, the best in forgiving, and the best in receiving these gifts from others. The truth of this resurrection story we remember today will dance from the first-century tomb and into your own heart, permeating your life if you will let it.
As I said in the beginning of this meditation, my answer to the question of whether the resurrection story of Jesus is myth is yes…and no. I have trouble being completely satisfied with a yes response, even with all the biblically-sound reasons I’ve just presented. There is something that keeps nagging at my soul, and I think it is this: to call the resurrection story myth is to limit its impact by relegating it to true (but remote) historical narrative, and thereby to try and contain its power in the same way that faithful people through the ages have tried to contain Divinity. I have difficulty calling the resurrection story a myth because it tempts us to keep Jesus and the tomb safely in the realm of the first-century and only dust off that resurrection theology once a year by singing alleluias and basking in the majesty of brass instrumentation. Friends, when we do that, then we too, are limiting the love and power of God to really touch and change our own landscapes from death to life again.
Nature, scripture, tradition and experience all teach us that the Divine simply cannot be contained, no matter how diligently we might try. That bad habit of trying to contain the compassionate love and transforming power of God began in our tradition with the ancients and their Ark of the Covenant. As the Hebrews wandered around the desert carefully carting that sacred adorned container, they literally believed that they were carrying God in a box. We read in the Hebrew scriptures that believing God to be contained in their well-sealed box was only the first of many theological mistakes. God can not, indeed, will not, be contained.
Fast forward to the person of Jesus, and we see a similar attempt to contain God. By the middle of the first century, when Jesus began his ministry, the religious leaders of the Jewish faith were certain that God was carefully contained within their sacred laws. Then all hell broke loose: Jesus began to heal on the Sabbath, eat with sinners, fraternize with the despicable underside of life, defying law after sacred law. When Jesus went on to suggest that unclean people were welcome in God’s kingdom, and to proclaim that God’s love extended beyond the faithful, law-abiding, card-carrying Hebrews, and then dared to proclaim himself as monarch of this new realm where love would reign supreme, well, it is safe to say that, for the religious establishment who sought to contain God in their legalistic box, and for the political establishment who benefited from their religiosity, all hell quickly broke loose!
Can’t you just hear them in that last week leading up to the cross? “He openly breaks our ancient law code…he names himself king over Caesar…if he is not contained, then within our systems and the people they suppress, all hell will certainly break loose! If this Jesus is allowed to pick and choose which laws to obey, and his theories gain hold among the masses, our whole system will fall like a house of cards. God will no longer safely be contained. Who knows what will happen?” What surprise, what horrible shock must have crossed the faces and minds of those in power when they were confronted with an empty tomb and neatly-folded grave cloths. It meant for them, as it means for us, that God will not be contained in any box of any making. God will not tolerate systems that abuse or detract from our full humanity. God will not sit idly by while injurious restraints—be they religious, secular, political, personal, or social—are enacted in God’s name.
The tomb, you see, from this perspective, is one more in a long parade of attempts to circumscribe God, to contain divine power and thereby constrain its effect. It didn’t work in the first century…and it will not work in the twenty-first. Whatever we choose to believe about what happened or didn’t happen in that garden tomb all accounts agree that it was empty of death. Only the wrappings of death remained. From death, somehow, burst forth life. From the tomb, somehow, emerged new life. Look around! Plants proclaim it each spring. Dormant trees join the Hallelujah Chorus with the tiniest of budding leaves. Bird song and butterfly wing alike dare us to believe what that empty tomb broadcasts: death is, simply never the last word in God’s narrative with us. New Life will win out, eventually, not once, but every time.
Yes, that empty tomb we face today is an inspiring, faith-forming, values-clarifying myth. The resurrection narrative offers us at least that, and so much more if we will let it. The tomb represents one more attempt to put God in a box; one more attempt to contain the life-giving Spirit; one more attempt to keep the loving, compassionate, justice-filled message of Jesus safe and secure where no one will be affected, or changed, or healed, or made whole. All such attempts in the past to contain the Divine and the Divine message have eventually failed. And the alleluias emanating from that empty tomb this morning trumpet that, once again, God has burst the lid on the box. God will not and can not be contained, nor can the Spirit of God, nor can the compassionate and loving and forgiving message of God, nor can any Child of God be constrained from new life any longer, including you and you and you and me.
All hell only breaks loose when we try to keep God in a safe and secure first-century box. To speak of the resurrection as only myth seems to me to relegate it to the category of great story, an effective narrative which, to be sure, helps define our faith and refine our values. However, the temptation with such a description is that the story will remain just that…a blast from the past and not much else, another feeble attempt by we humans to try and contain God yet again.
Friends, if the empty tomb says anything to us today, let it somehow speak to us about the very presence of God, right here, right now. Let the risen Christ whisper an alleluia in your ear, even as you sit in the fragrant beauty of this Easter morning sanctuary. Let the Spirit, whose breath is as sweet as the lilies that adorn this space, let that Spirit blow through your dusty, tired, soul and bring new life, yes, NEW LIFE! Just as Isaiah promised our ancestors, so the empty tomb proclaims! There is new life, abundant life, life that replaces whatever hell you can imagine or death you will experience. Behold! This One who was dead is alive now. Do not look for the living among the dead! He is not there, for he arose! God, Christ, Spirit will not be contained—either in the first-century or in your life now! On this resurrection day, look with Mary and with Peter, with Joanna and Mary the mother of James, glance with the other women who followed Jesus all the way from Galilee to Gethsemane to the Garden Tomb, stoop down and peer into that tomb of death yourself, gaze into its sacred and holy emptiness, and you, too, will see the glimmers of new life God intends for you! |
