As a churchgoing Catholic young man, I always liked Easter. The sacrifice of Jesus, the meaning of that sacrifice, and the transformation that resulted, all carried great personal importance for me. I liked that it had both sombre and celebratory aspects; I liked that it was the most resonantly mythic aspect of Christianity; I liked the way it led me to reflect upon my own life.
Above all, I loved the Easter story for the humility at its core. This came back to me when I wandered Europe a few years back, seeing museums full of statues of the gods unseated by Christianity – all of them exalted figures, perfect, mighty, combative, awesome. And the image placed at the centre of Christianity is a man reduced to as little as a man can be; frail, wracked, and dying in agony. It is true that the tale of being hung on a tree, passing into death and then returning is a recurring motif in the history of human myth – but until Christianity, the suffering was not the focus. The resurgence into power was the focus. This is a pretty profound change.
(Okay, there are probably examples I’ve missed but what the heck, I’ll make the claim anyway. More informed people can prove me wrong.)
The humility of it, the connection between the divine and the human through the medium of suffering – this is hugely significant and even now I wonder at it. It always seemed important to me that the Jesus who died on the cross was not the Jesus who came forth from the tomb. He was the same man, but utterly transformed. And the focus of Christianity, rightfully, is on the man before that transformation, when he was most fully human.
I am no longer a Christian in any meaningful sense of the word, but I will always strive to interact with the world with Christlike love. I am indivisible from the Christian faith that shaped me. And I like it that way.
Have a good Easter, everyone.
8 thoughts on “Easter – Good Friday”
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One of the favoured representations of the Buddha in parts of south-east Asia is of him during (or at the end of) his period of near-total abstinence from food and water. In other words, he’s mostly a skeleton, and some of the statues showing this look pretty disturbing.
Not that this is about humility, really, and the Buddha realised that it was a misguided practice (how can you concentrate when you’re fainting from hunger?), but I thought I’d mention it.
To talk about some other mythologies, it is critical to the character of the Norse stories that the monsters win. You have powerful gods, yes, but their power will fail, and they know it.
One of the reasons ancient Greeks criticised the stories of their gods was that they didn’t portray the gods as perfect, but rather as petty, vindictive figures, entirely too human, who committed monstrous crimes (such as eating human flesh, punishing the innocent, etc). Of course, such critics were idiots (hello, Plato), but it does point to the fact that the gods were certainly not presented as perfect. Of course, they were also always far more than human, regardless of what they did, and I think your basic point about the centrality of the Christ’s suffering is correct.
Christianity (and the other religions of the Book) are remarkable for their relationship with time and the world, too. To my mind, it’s a strange desire for historicity and the supremacy of linear time. Oh well.
Having been brought up very liberally catholic, I no longer define myself as Christian, but I’m very much in agreement with your statement about the indivisibility from the the faith as a part of your upbringing. Christian humility and the doctrine of grace encapsulated in the portion fo the mass just previous to communion when the congregation does the “lord I am not worthy to recieve you, but only say the word and I shall be healed.” made a huge impact on my personal ethics. I know its common practice to slag off christianity these days as a cure all criticism, but lets not do the baby-bathwater trick. The notion of compassion, and love. Thats a biggie.
Merry Easter back to you bro 🙂
Happy easter Morgue.
Jamie, I think morgue was saying there is something fundamentally different about the way Christianity presents it’s God.
Sure the greek gods were petty and vindictive, but they *were* gods. They were leagues more powerful than any normal mortal, even the great fgreek heros (who were often better behaved than the God, but not much).
Christianity says that God, immortal, transcendant, all powerful, became a mortal, local, weak man who then suffered and died a criminals death all for the great love he had for everyone.
It’s a totally different view that’s not even remotely hinted at in any other mythology. Sure, other religions have dying and resurrecting Gods (Mithras, Osiris), but like morgue says, there is nothing remotely like the compassion and profound love that caused Jesus to do what he did.
As for your questions about historicity, well I don’t understand why you’d want to see things differently.
In the end, Jesus made historically verifiable claims. If they are true (as most mainstream historians both christian and non christian agree they are [people like the jesus seminar aren’t ‘mainstream’]) then we have no reason to disbelieve other claims he made.
Personally I like the fact that my faith is grounded in fact and not just in the random thoughts of some person who may or may not have existed. Each to their own I guess.
Another thought. Jamie wrote: “One of the favoured representations of the Buddha in parts of south-east Asia is of him during (or at the end of) his period of near-total abstinence from food and water. In other words, he’s mostly a skeleton, and some of the statues showing this look pretty disturbing.”
This is the classic difference between Christ and other religious figures. Buddha did this to improve himself. Christ did what he did to improve others.
Um, loathe as I am to enter any kind of religious type quibbling… Buddha achieved enlightenment then came back out of compassion to teach others the path to relieve suffering. Arguably all his efforts to “improve himself” were to “improve others”
The “classic difference” would seem to be, as an article of faith, Christ started as Christ/God, whereas Buddha started as a man. (Although I always wondered about what JC’d been doing between the birth and the preaching…)
Argh. Nevermind. The above is my own contribution to not seeing the wood for the trees. It’s about the teaching, not the teacher.
I have often wondered what JC did until he hit his thirties as well. There is nothing between 12 and 30 odd. I’d have loved to be a fly on the wall when he was the same age as Zeke. I wonder if they spanked the son of God?
Matt, I’m not disagreeing with you or with Morgue. As I said, “[Greek gods] were also always far more than human”.
As for truth, fact, and historicity, for me those are three things that don’t necessarily have anything to do with each other. But then, while I think the Buddha’s teachings are true, I approach them as he formulated them, as an answer to a problem – a problem I am not always concerned with. I suspect that this is very different from your faith.
(I am completely unsure, by the way, whether I have much faith or belief; I have experienced some of the truth of the Buddha’s teachings, but I don’t think that’s the same thing.)
And the really nice bit about the human and divine – the insertion of divinity into the material stuff of the universe (an incarnation) – is that there are an infinity of Jesus/Christs to match human complexity. From the suffering, betrayed and dying Jesus, through that of the liberation theologists to the Teilhardian concept of humankind becoming the self-aware leading edge of a self-directed evolution, building up the world ahead of us by all our “little bits”. (All heading to an “super-differentiated” but infinitely unfied point Omega, where everyone’s unique differences are celebrated – not a melting pot where we all become the same, but every shade of possible enlightened humanness and its expression is possible). So we all get to choose our own type of Christianisty, from the Irish Catholicism with medals and statues to those whose view embraces a Cosmic Christ. (As my Mum says, she was brought up an Irish Catholic, me a Roman Catholic, and the grandchildren as New Zealand Catholics.)