What am I thinking about this Easter?
Lots of things, actually.
Even as late as Saturday night, I hadn’t decided if I was going to church. My wife’s church wasn’t doing anything special, and that’s really the only place I’d go. The weekend has lost its luster and importance to me. I don’t know many of the people who might be at the service, and with my beliefs the way they are, I don’t have much in common with anyone either.
We’ll see.
The Walking Dead
Why don’t we talk more about Matthew 27:52-53?
I don’t know that I’ve ever heard a pastor talk beyond verse 51. They focus on the temple curtain being ripped in half. They make a huge deal about it because of how tall and thick and heavy it was. “Only a supernatural force could have done this,” they say. There’s one Easter drama that zooms in on one of the high priests at that moment, and he’s in tears at the loss of the curtain.
Okay, cool. But let’s read on.
52 The tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. 53 After his resurrection they came out of the tombs and entered the holy city and appeared to many. (NRSVUE)
Zombies in Galilee?
Okay, technically not zombies, because the Bible says they were raised.
Why don’t we talk about that more?
Isn’t that more interesting than a curtain being torn?
Why don’t the other gospels mention this event? Mark and Luke mention the curtain but not the resurrection of the others. John doesn’t even mention the curtain.
Fun side note: There’s a series of some 50+ books about the centurion who supposedly stabbed Jesus on the cross.
Of course, the resurrected had to sit in their tombs for three days, (V 53a: “They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection.”) which had to kind of suck. I mean, you get brought back to life, and your tomb is broken open, but you don’t get to leave the tomb until after Jesus gets done with his whole thing. You’ve got to sit there and listen to people screaming about the tombs coming open, and sit there watching the sunlight spill down into the opening. You can smell the world again. Hear the birds. Feel the wind again. But you can’t go out there for three days. What’s up with that? How does that make sense?
Why are there no other references anywhere in the Bible or in history of this aspect of that weekend?
Why didn’t someone else besides Matthew write about this event? Matthew’s author supposedly used the gospel of Mark as source material, but there’s nothing there about the mass resurrection event. Did he make it up out of whole cloth?
Or—and this gets my writer’s juices going—was the author of Matthew actually one of those saints who was resurrected? That would be interesting to consider. And what if they were doomed/cursed/blessed to walk the earth until the Second Coming as Casca is?
Another possibility (conspiracy warning): Someone else wrote about it, and the people who put the New Testament books together decided it wasn’t needed or appropriate?
But why decide that? Why hide a mass resurrection event like that? Wouldn’t that make Jesus’ resurrection even more powerful and amazing? “Look! God not only brought his son back to life, but look at all of these others he raised!”
And even if “those people” decided not to include it, where are the historical discussions of tombs being broken open and formerly dead people walking the earth? Shouldn’t there be something written down somewhere about that kind of stunning event?
My inner cynic suspects they’re in the same place as the discussions of the pharaoh who supposedly drowned in the Red Sea, leading his army against the escaped Hebrews.
Judas
A Judas meme crossed my feed this week (I know, shocking during Holy Week). It said, “Judas had the best pastor, the best leader, the best adviser, and the best counselor. Yet he failed.”
But did he?
Did he really fail?
Judas “betrayed Jesus with a kiss,” identifying him to the Jewish authorities in the Garden so they could arrest him. I still don’t quite understand what that was all about, because they knew who he was. They saw him in the synagogue all the time. They’d confronted him time and time again.
So Judas identified him, then went off somewhere and died…somehow. Ever since, his name has been associated with sin and betrayal.
But consider another angle.
Didn’t he do exactly what God’s plan required him to do?
Without Judas identifying Jesus, Jesus wouldn’t have been arrested or executed. Without the execution, there would have been no resurrection.
Wasn’t he fulfilling God’s will? And if you’re fulfilling God’s will, can you be sinning? Can it be a sin to do what God wants you to do?
I’ve said this several times over the last few weeks as various people post about Easter. One person said that perhaps “God is all knowing and selected someone for the role he could foresee wasn’t going to choose God’s way and used him for his purpose.”
But God had already ordained Jesus’ death and resurrection, right? Jesus himself said so plenty of times during his ministry. So if Jesus was going to die, people had to be part of that process. People had to do things—subjectively bad things—to fulfill God’s plan.
But those things were only subjectively bad because they were part of God’s plan, and God’s plan can’t be bad, can it?
Bathsheba’s firstborn son has entered the chat.
Another side note: We don’t know the names of any of the executioners, which confuses me as I consider it. If Judas earned his eternal identity of betrayer by identifying and accusing him, shouldn’t the executioner be remembered in the same infamy?
And since I’m playing “What if,” I have to ask the obvious question.
What happens if Judas doesn’t betray Jesus?
God’s plan for world salvation involved Jesus dying so he could be resurrected.
So if Judas had had a change of heart, would he have refused the money and walked away?
But then who would God use for the purpose of killing his son?
And would we feel the same way about that person as we’re supposed to feel about Judas?
Hope your Easter weekend is everything you want it to be.
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