During the closing week of Lent, known as the Holy Week, faithful congregations mull over the historic event known as resurrection on the first day after Sabbath. The risen Jesus breathes a new life into a new community. Since the eighth century it is known as Easter in the northwest, derived from Ēostre or the rising dawn, pagan fertility and spring goddess of new beginnings.
Millions of people endure spine-chilling misfortunes in life. Faith community frowns on such ghastly circumstances; we bring our displeasure, distress and shame into the open in no uncertain terms. That’s what Jesus’ resurrection reminds us. Move on from whatever that clogs your present-day existence. The bracing air of renewal helps us breathe in new promises and panoramas towards a persistent plug-in for time ahead.
A young woman who gains a relationship with an elder loan shark is known as a gold digger. When nosy friends ask her: Why would you want to live with a senior partner? Her answer: “Money, what else? Do I love the old geezer? ‘Hell, no!’”. Samuel Clemens, aka Mark Twain, a swanky American writer, is credited for an infamous line: ‘Hell for company and heaven for climate’.
Collectively people of all climes, colours, convictions, creeds and cultures make our own ‘hell’ for themselves, their neighbours, their community and the world.
Historians hardly weigh up the Jallianwala Bagh massacre of 13 April 1919 when the imperial soldiers kept firing at a peaceful gathering. The “Christian” assassins took one hundred years to offer an apology for the massacre of over innocent 1200 lives. A Nazi dictator, a baptized Roman Catholic, ordered the heinous carnage or holocaust, better known as Shoah, of six million Jews during World War 1. A former intelligence officer who became the head honcho, a man who professes Orthodox church affiliation, is determined to annihilate his neighbours in Ukraine.Likud party leader, a Jew who loves his neighbours, prophetically declared about his pernicious raids on the Gaza Strip, “This will be a victory of good over evil, of light over darkness, of life over death.”
The word “hell,” a profane platitude, has more persuasive frequency in our conversations than heaven! Inferno or hell is the first part of Dante Aligheri’s epic poem Divine Comedy. World leaders often resort to expletives to galvanise an audience. An allegedly rigged election is “allhell’s about to break loose” or “just for the hell of it,” when everything goes well we had “hell of a time,” when life goes south “run like hell,” when a narky neighbour annoys “what the hell do you want” etc. Therefore, hell is with us with no let-up.
In the second century, when our faithful forbears wanted to sort out spiritual foundations and guidelines in an affirmation of faith, first they put together the Old Roman Creed or the Apostles’ creed followed by two ecumenical statements of faith – creed of Nicaea and Nicene creed. The Apostles’ creed was not authored by the apostles. Against distortions and divisions, denominational and interdenominational creeds mushroomed in the last two millennia.
No one dared to leave a marker with the preposterous acronym “RIP” on the Garden tomb in Jerusalem! The fledgling faith was caringly ensconced in the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus, the Messiah. The adherents of the Good News of Jesus have had a tough time for centuries about hell and heaven. Are they symbols or imaginations? If we drill deep, we wouldn’t get to hell but find crude oil and natural gas. In the cloud-filled outer space, we see the glowing blue and red sky.
The early church had its own ingenuous beliefs about what took place between death and resurrection. Some believe that Jesus descended into hell in order to liberate the souls. However, the four Gospel narratives do not mention that Jesus’ descent into hell.Hundreds of thousands of faithful worshippers proclaim the words he “descended into hell” week after week! Most discerning people would not paint in words that hell and heaven have conceptual relevance. These terms refer to either one’s mystical experiences of the
Holy One or the privation of such a tangible cloud nine.
There are several words such as Sheol, Gehenna, Hades, Hell etc. that describe the place where the dead go. Although Jesus entered the place of the dead, he was not forsaken or ditched and death could not keep him. There happened a startling rollback which made dying a secure engagement. The followers of Jesus have been hassled over the descent of Jesus and cooked up their own theories. The longer we live, the harder it is to live with such ambiguities as no one can help resolve this conundrum. Some believe Jesus descended to two place – hell and purgatory while others accept the descent as a metaphor.
The Resurrection Sunday or Easter is celebrated on March 31 this year. Many will miss family and friends on Easter Sunday unlike other festive days of the year. Resurrection of Jesus is an emotional confluence of sadness and merriment, an emerging gathering of desolation and reunion. Mahatma Gandhi had a better take on who Jesus was than most theologians. “A man who was completely innocent, offered himself as a sacrifice for the good of others, including his enemies, and became the ransom of the world. It was a perfect act.”
Many are caught up in frenetic pursuits to figure out what Jesus’ resurrection is all about. It is another opportunity to help calm down our unhinged world, take deep breaths to enjoy the reassuring nature, let our guards down and search for the inner joy that keeps us pumped up to welcome the risen Jesus.
Every sunset is a fright of our transience; every sunrise is a flight towards rekindling. An uplifting chant of the words from the angst-ridden thief’s request to Jesus on the cross (Luke 23:42)from the Taizé community in France reminds us of those who pray and praise with us:
“Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom
Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
(The Rev. John T. Mathew, Mississauga, ON Canada)
Let’s enjoy the gifts that Risen Jesus had given us through his death on cross and resurrection .The gifts of deliverance resumption and Praise. Thank you for the notes achaya.As we sing praising Jesus,there is power in the precious blood of Jesus.We experience that as we believe in Him.