EASTER TURNS DEATH TO LIFE, CYNICISM TO HOPE


4/21/19

As an ardent advocate of the insightful observation of that great philosopher Lily Tomlin,

 “No matter how cynical you become, it's never enough to keep up.”,

it would be easy for yours truly to portray the death of Jesus as yet another series of justifications for cynicism regarding the human race:

·         Even people who you thought were your best friends will screw you when there’s something in it for them.  Judas betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver, and one suspects he would have hit even a much lower bid.  Peter three times denied Jesus, the same Jesus whom Peter promised just a few hours before that he would never abandon, at the mere hint that he could possibly be in trouble for being one of Jesus’s disciples.

·         People are essentially stupid.  At the Last Supper, the last night Jesus spent with his guys, his best friends and most loyal followers, He had to explain again what He was here to do…and they still didn’t get it.   Philip and Thomas asked questions that drove Jesus to exasperation.  Other disciples merely repeated back what Jesus was telling them, hoping that somehow it would make sense or at least that Jesus would approve.   Peter was looking for yet another opportunity to suck up.  Some of the other guys, not having listened and thus being convinced that they were about to embark on a military campaign, got weapons together.  At least the last displayed some measure of faith; they put together a cache of two swords to fight the Roman legions.   But, after witnessing miracle after miracle, even the weakest among us would have believed that two swords would do the trick…if the idea were to take back Palestine.

·         Don’t try to come up with any new ideas or new ways of looking at things…you’ll just get shot down, so your best bet is to get in line and follow the crowd.   People love the old ways, or the old wine, as Jesus put it, and don’t want to deal with new things.  Jesus tried to show people a new way…and look what they did to Him.

·         No good deed goes unpunished.  “For which of the good works,” Jesus asked, “are you putting me on trial?”   As they say in the law, the thing speaks for itself.

·         Politicians, and all important types, are, at their heart, timid little people afraid of losing their positions.  Pilate knew that Jesus had “committed no capital crime.”  He knew that killing Jesus would not be right, moral, or even legal.  And, most emphatically in Matthew’s and John’s Gospels, was afraid of the supernatural consequences of sentencing Jesus to death.   But as soon as the crowd pointed out that releasing Jesus might put Pilate on bad paper with Caesar, Pilate sent Jesus off to His crucifixion.

Yes indeed…the stupidity, greed, pettiness, obtuseness, and timidity that permeates our world did Jesus in…to no one’s surprise.   And if Jesus was so wise and wonderful, why didn’t He see it?   He was so naïve!

And then came…the Resurrection.  The Resurrection transformed Jesus’s death from a burgeoning barrel of grist for the cynics into a completely unnecessary, but gladly performed, act of eternal salvation.  (See WHY DID JESUS HAVE TO SUFFER?, 10/16/18) The Resurrection took that grisly, puzzling, yet predictable, death from an inexplicable act of surrender to the evils that characterize so much of our world into the ultimate Sacrifice to open the gates of heaven, the path to an eternal life of contentment and service, to ALL of us.

Jesus literally rose from the dead on Easter morning over 2,000 years.   He also, by doing so, figuratively rose above the cynicism that permeates the world.  The latter makes us cynics nervous, but the former gives even us hope.   Thanks, Jesus. 

Blessed Easter and Passover season.






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