The empty tomb of Jesus is Bad News

Christianity has taught that the empty tomb of Jesus is not just good news but The Good News. The death and resurrection of Jesus is the defining moments of the story of Jesus and it shows us that death does not have the last word. That life and light cannot ever be overcome. This is indeed Good News. 

But it is also bad news. 

We are a people who are trapped by scapegoating and sacrificing others in order to "eradicate" problems in the world. We are always on the lookout for the person or persons that are responsible for the problems in the world and then doing our best to demonize those persons so that our scapegoating actions are justified. We all know that the President of the USA has power but the President is not all all mighty puppet master that can make the sun rise and gas prices low. We like to think that the POTUS has all sorts of power to "fix" the world or at least our problems. If we read biographies or memoirs of previous POTUS we quickly see just how limited their power is. 

And yet, we blame them for all sorts of problems which we think they caused. Low stock market? Housing bubble? Middle East crisis? Health care costs? All of these and many others are beyond the actions of the POTUS. These are complicated problems that require massive solutions that one person cannot do on their own. 

We are a species that is addicted to finding scapegoats in our world. We are addicted to blaming and shaming and killing others. Ae are a species that is addicted to filling tombs with people who are the "problem". 

When the tomb is empty, it is Good News. But it is also bad news for us who are addicted to scapegoating and sacrificing others. The empty tomb says that God does not accept sacrifices and scapegoats. It says that the tombs we try to fill will forever be emptied, that our thoughts on who is to blame and who is the problem are incomplete. 

The empty tomb is bad news because it pricks the hearts of us all that the way we are working to bring about peace has been and is all wrong. We have to find a "more excellent way". We have to give up filling the tombs with victims before an empty tomb can be Good News. 

David is Goliath

Even for the non-Christian the story of David and Goliath is seared into your brain. This story is invoked for all sorts of reasons. Political and inspirational and everything in between. Lets be honest, Disney makes most of their money on variations of the David v. Goliath story. Just a little gallery to get the point

Perhaps one of the most vivid D v. G stories told in the minds of Americans is a hockey game (ironically enough, also a Disney movie):

When I was a child and read the story of David v. Goliath I was interested in David's ability to take down the giant. I was amazed that the little guy could be clever enough to beat the big guy. It is, for many reason, in part why I continue to cheer for the underdog in sports.

Upon further reflection of this story, it is clear that David won this battle but Goliath won the war. 

For you see the Spirit of Goliath was in the heart of David and lives on alive and well today. David realized that he could not beat Goliath at his own game using swords and armor, so David used a sling. He found a different set of tools, but was playing the same game - violence. 

This is in part why I do not follow David but the Son of David. Jesus also realized that he could not beat Goliath with swords and armor. Jesus also knows that picking up a sling or any other weapon would only ensure that the Spirit of Goliath is undefeated. When we use violence to overthrow violence the only winner in that war is violence. 

We applaud David's courage to fight the Goliath. We applaud David's ability to see he could not beat Goliath is swords and armor. We applaud David's faith in God. But in doing so, are we applauding violence as solution to the problem of violence?    

Hometown Jesus is rejected

Here is a brief recap of the sermon from yesterday on the scripture of Luke 4:21-30.

We have a habit of defining ourselves by who or what we are not. It is easy to do. For instance, we might not want to be the one who chooses what you want to eat for lunch but we are much more comfortable being the one who says what we don't want for lunch. The same is true for defining our own selves. We would rather define who we are not rather than who we are. 

Defining who you are by who you are not sounds something like: "I would not ever take a home loan I could not pay back." or "I would never do what those soldiers did in Abu Ghraib" or "I would never protest a funeral." We define who we are by who we are not all the time. 

The thing about defining who we are by who we are not is that we always have someone to blame for the tension or problems in the world. It is always the "other" person who is the cause of the problem, and as we all know, "I would never do what they did." 

Luke tells us a story in which Jesus gets himself into trouble. 

Jesus reads a scroll and everyone is very proud that Jesus is their "homegrown boy". If they had water towers in Jesus' day the town of Nazareth might have been one step away from inscribing "Home of Jesus" on their water tower.  Jesus is "their guy" and the group is unified in it's understanding of who they are - they are not the fools who will not be a part of the year of the Lord's favor.

Jesus sees they are united as a group, believing they will ask him to do what he did in other areas, Jesus reminds the crowds of two other prophets who were also were "on their side" but these two prophets went to the gentiles. That is to say, the Jesus tells them that Elijah, Elisha and even Jesus are defining the people of God not as different from other groups but as all equal in the sight of God. 

As soon as Jesus tells his hometown that even the gentiles (the other) will be a part of the "Lord's favor", the group (mob) is filled with rage.

Prior to Jesus talking, this mob knew who to blame for their problems and the tension in the world - "those people". But Jesus is saying that "those people" are also beloved by God... just like them. Jesus is saying that those people are like you and you are like them. Jesus is saying that there is no "us" and "them" there is only a "we". 

In the absence of a "them" the "us" do not know who to blame for the tension in the culture. This is true today. Part of the fear to give citizenship to "illegals" is because we then would be without a "them" to blame any number of problems on. The words of Jesus removed the "them" for the Jews in his hometown and they were filled with rage. But they do not know how to resolve tension in the culture without a "them" to blame it on. So, right there in the temple, without a "them" to blame the mob blames him - Jesus.  

Jesus is the problem for the tension now. All was well, everyone knew who was the "them" was but Jesus just said the "them" is just like us. Without a "them" to blame for tension the mob turns on Jesus and blame him. They then treat him as they have always treated the "them" - they treat Jesus as their new scapegoat. 

What happens next is they lead Jesus to the edge of town to kill him, just as one would with a traditional scapegoat found in Leviticus 16. 

Jesus walks through the mob, I imagine, with the prayer "Forgive them for they know not what they are doing."

God in Jesus exposes the fact that humanity is caught up in cycles of violence and always looking for the next scapegoat to resolve tension. And this cycle is so powerful that we would even kill a home town boy. We would even kill God.