John
20:19-31
In 1799, a French army officer from
Corsica led a coup that put him in charge of the government. After that, he began a series of battles
against other claimants to control of the country and then against other
countries, and in 1804 he was in a strong enough position to crown himself
Emperor Napoleon I. He proceeded to
spread his dominion over Europe in all directions, but in the East he
overreached himself and in 1812 his advance was halted by the Russian army and
the Russian winter. Two years later the
Napoleonic Empire had crumbled and Bonaparte was exiled to the island of Elba
in the Mediterranean. (“Able was I ere I
saw Elba.”)
Then in February, 1815 the British
Navy let its guard down briefly and Napoleon slipped off the island with 1,000
men and landed in France on March 1. By
March 19 he was in Paris and his former troops were returning to arms. Within a week, Europe was at war again. This time it was quick, though, with the
French meeting their Waterloo on June 18.
On July 15, Bonaparte surrendered himself to the British. This time they stuck him on an island in the
Atlantic off the coast of Africa and they did not let their guard down until he
died. I share this history lesson, which
comes courtesy of Wikipedia, because it validates something about the way that
people behave when their efforts to establish an empire fail but then they
suddenly get a second chance.
It also shows how different King
Jesus is from the rulers of this world.
A writer named Josh Way says of the Resurrection of Jesus:
“Clearly no one in the gospel stories expected
Jesus to be resurrected. Even when Jesus made cryptic predictions about his
death and vindication, his followers told him to stop talking crazy and asked
when he was going to become king and kill all the bad guys. In its native Jewish
context, the designation ‘messiah’ had little to do with dying and coming back
to life and everything to do with winning wars. After Jesus was executed, no
one was looking at their watch wondering what was taking him so long. They were
defeated and dejected. Their candidate was gone. The end.
And so when Jesus is resurrected, according to
the synoptic gospels, it’s a surprise that completely blindsides his friends
and followers. The shock and terror of the disciples is dramatized in the
gospel texts, and we sympathize. Running into someone you watched die would be
unsettling, to say the least. But once again, a deeper consideration of the
historical and political background amplifies the drama. No one had ever
imagined that a messianic candidate would die and be resurrected, but if
that were to ever happen, surely the vindicated one would
start the holy war to end all holy wars. With God clearly on his side, nothing
could stop him. The disciples aren’t just scared because they think they’ve
seen the ghost of a beloved friend, they’re staring at the risen body of the
prophet they betrayed and abandoned. They must be thinking that judgment day is
upon them.
But it wasn’t. Jesus announces ‘peace!’ and
tells them not to fear. The disciples (and innumerable Christian interpreters
since) still want to know when the war will start, and Jesus smiles patiently
and shakes his head.”[1]
Jesus is not about
revenge. He’s not about getting
even. He’s not about settling scores, or
even keeping score. There was a time
when Peter had asked him how often he had to forgive the same person, whether
seven would do it. Jesus told him,
“Not
seven, but seventy times seven.” [Matthew 18:22]
That wasn’t so that on
offense number 491, Peter could feel free go off on someone. It was so that neither he nor anybody else
could or would keep count. Jesus’ death
involved his plea that God would forgive humanity. Jesus’ resurrection brought with it a call for
his followers to live out that forgiveness:
“‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent
me, so I send you.’ When he had
said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are
forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.’” [John 20:21-23]
Yes, there is that
warning at the end that not forgiving someone is possible. But who “retains” those sins? Does someone who seeks forgiveness not find
it because it is denied? Or could it be
that the one who will not forgive is the one stuck with the sin’s effect, that
they are the one for whom it remains a reality?
Jesus carried the marks of his crucifixion into his resurrection, and
the record of our terrible abuse of God remains there, but that is not the
controlling fact. The controlling fact
is Jesus’ offer of peace.
He asks us to live the same
way. He gives us our own marching
orders. “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” [John 20:21] Like him, we are going to get hurt. Like him, we are going to know sorrow and
defeat. Like him, we are going to face a
world where a call to march across Europe and freeze to death in Russia will
meet a more rousing response than a call to love your neighbor and to share
your goods with the poor. But living
like him and dying like him, we also rise like him.
Napoleon is dead. Jesus is alive. The Empire is gone. The Kingdom stands forever.
[1]
Josh Way, “Three Glorious Surprises in the Resurrection” at
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/unfundamentalistchristians
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/unfundamentalistchristians
No comments:
Post a Comment