An Easter wish for Christianity
A column for Easter could consist of outlining the proof we have for the authenticity of the Christian narrative, accounts of miracles, anecdotes about how God changes lives. All of that is entirely valid and absolutely vital, but on this Good Friday I’d rather ask a fundamental question. Why is it that the purest, most supremely liberating philosophy and theology in all history is now seen by so many non-Christians as an intolerant, legalistic and even irrelevant religion embraced only by the gullible and the judgmental?
If that shocks you, so be it. The truth is often shocking.
As a Christian I pose this question with no relish but I pose it because it’s real and unless Christians admit the problem and struggle to remedy it, matters will only deteriorate. I worship Jesus Christ, place God at the centre of my life, and this Easter will embrace every word of the various services of praise. I want others to be able to do the same.
An authentic relationship with God is a dialogue, involving questions, arguments and even doubt. We’re made to be thinking individuals who want answers, not robotic creatures who simply obey.
A mature belief in Scripture necessitates an understanding that the Bible is not divine dictation but an inspired history of God’s relationship with humanity, which is a wonderful guide to life but does not solve every problem.
It can be complex, it’s often nuanced, but at heart it’s about absolute love. And that love culminates in the life, death and resurrection of Christ, who says not a word about, for example, abortion, homosexuality, euthanasia or the so-called traditional family, but demands justice, forgiveness, equality, care for the poor, the marginalized and strangers, and compassion even for enemies; who insists on peace and on the abandonment of materialism and who constantly speaks of the risks of wealth and prestige.
He turns the world upside down, challenges the comfortable and the complacent, sides with the outcast and the pris- oner, has no regard for earthly power and worldly ambition. Love and hope. Christianity isn’t safe and was never supposed to be. Christianity is dangerous.
Yet, truth be told, we have often transformed a faith that should revel in saying yes into a religion that cries no. Its founder died so that we would change the world, but many of His followers fight to defend the establishment, link Jesus to nationalism and military force and dismiss those who campaign for social change as radical and even Godless.
Of course this is only a culture within Christianity, and not Christianity itself. But ask most people what they think of when they consider the public face of Christianity and they speak of American conservative politicians, anti-abortion activists or campaigners against sex education or equal marriage.
Worse than this, many Christians themselves — especially in North America — have retreated into a bunker mentality, seeing persecution around every corner and retreating into literalism and smallmindedness. They tell of what they describe as the war on Christmas, the alleged decline of social values or the disappearance of public prayer.
This is all nostalgia rather than the Jesus movement and as much as change can be frightening to all of us, the Son of God told us that fear was unfounded.
It’s as though the cosmetics of the Gospels, the veneer of the message, has become more important than its core and its central meaning. Jesus spoke less about the end times than the time to end injustice, less about whom we should love than about how we should love everyone.
Which is why this Easter I shall bend my knee, bow my head, receive the body and blood of Jesus, thank Him for His sacrifice, ask forgiveness for failing Him so many times and pray that all of our hearts, especially my own, will be softened and made anew. The rock has been rolled away, the light of the world shines and we see every person, every situation, in its reflection. So it begins.
The great C.S. Lewis, one of the finest communicators of the faith in modern times, once wrote that, “Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.”
Let Christians not be moderate in their vocation as radicals of invincible and, yes, revolutionary love.