At church on Sunday, Bob Carlton brought up an interesting point – as Christians we tend to focus more on the crucifixion than we do the Ressurection. We have numerous theories (and debates) about atonement, we observe the Stations of the Cross, we watch movies detailing the violent death of Jesus – but give little attention to the Resurrection apart from asserting that it happened. This, of course, begged the question of “why?” Why do we fail to remember the Resurrection? Why don’t we re-enact it like we do Christ’s death? Why are we more fixated on death than life? There were a number of fascinating explanations suggested – that we feel the need to live in a story with a known climax, that we understand violence but not mystery… – but a couple things occurred to me during the discussion.
First – that as the church we haven’t always been so divorced from the practice of celebrating Resurrection. In the pre-industrial world people were much more attuned to the fading and returning of life in the unfolding of the seasons. Their feast days (which our Christian holy days attempt to co-opt) marked the turning points of the seasons – solstice, equinox, solstice – in an endless ritual. Each year the world enacted the play of death and resurrection as winter crept in and stole life and light away and then summer brought everything back to life again. But this wasn’t just a ritual – it was life. Marking and understanding this cycle meant the difference between life and death. One had to know when to plant and when to harvest and how much to store up against winter starvation. Life was cherished, and light as the harbinger of life revered. But we’ve lost that in the modern world. In our wired and climate-controlled homes we have little need to mark the passing of seasons except for how they effect our comfort. We know we can go to any store and buy produce no matter the season. We have disconnected ourselves from the cycle – living in an artificial (and unsustainable) now. We have little need to yearn for or celebrate the return of life to the earth. We take that life for granted and so have gotten out of the habit of practicing resurrection.
I believe this falling into the habit of remembering the death and not the life has marred our faith. The resurrection stands for hope – for remembering that good does win. The resurrection ushers in the Kingdom, calling us to live in that hope by following in the way of Christ. The resurrection encourages us to spread that hope – doing good, righting wrongs, caring for others. But instead we dwell simply on the death. We see less hope and possibility for improvement and instead see depravity. We make the death about us – how it serves us, how it defines us. Not that those questions are invalid, but to solely focus on them leads to a highly imbalanced faith. Our faith becomes about endings rather than beginnings. We can’t break free of the eternal now that is but a pseudo-life and embrace the return of the light. I think we can learn from the cultures that marked the passing of the seasons – even on the darkest day when it looked like death may have won the people are not called to mourn or to remain in darkness. No, they light a bonfire and chase away that very darkness asserting that the light will return and with it the life that sustains.
So I wonder what it will take for us to do more than utter a few “He is risen indeeds” on Easter and to choose to live in the Resurrection. To refrain from dwelling in despair and darkness and to affirm life instead. To live in the hope of the resurrection – choosing to bring life into the world.
At least that is what I am asking myself as I prepare for Holy Week.