Our Muslim friends, Khaled Elabdi and Teresa Kruser, called to wish us a happy Easter.
There was a time when that might have never happened.
Growing up I was taught that Jesus was a Christian. I don’t think anyone ever said that exactly, but it was the message I heard anyway.
How could it be otherwise? After all, Easter meant all Christians would receive the gift of eternal life. In other words, we were going to heaven when we die (whatever “heaven” is).
But no one else. No Jews. No Muslims. No Hindus, Buddhists, atheists, or anyone but Christians. So as a young boy it seemed logical for me to conclude that Jesus was a Christian. How else would he be in heaven?
It took years for me to understand the Bible in a different way, not least because, as I was told, the center of Christian belief was the Cross of Jesus where he died for the sins of the world.
Then I became friends with Morris Shapiro, the rabbi friend I mentioned in my last Blog.
He was a wonderful man of God, stirring up in me questions I had been struggling with for some time. How could God be so small that Morris would be excluded from heaven because he was Jewish and not Christian?
It didn’t seem to make any sense. Turns out, it doesn’t.
For one thing, God’s forgiveness existed before Jesus was born. That is what our own Old Testament portion of the Christian Bible says again and again.
So obviously the cross didn’t make forgiveness possible.
Besides, what kind of God would require the death of a son before forgiving the rest of us? I wouldn’t do that and I’m pretty sure God is bigger and better than I am.
But what about Jesus’ death? What did it mean?
It meant that there is no limit to the extent to which sinful human beings will go to get their way. Killing an innocent man is about as far as one can go.
But then the resurrection happened. God said NO to human beings having the final word, or possessing ultimate authority.
God raised Jesus and assured the whole world that not even an unjust death, among the worst of evil’s tools, will ever finally win the day…God’s will wins…the power of love wins…good finally triumphs over evil.
I cannot prove the resurrection happened, although it has more logic to it than some people believe, but in the end it is a choice to believe in it or not.
I choose to believe it happened. I choose to believe Jesus was raised, and, thus, death will not be the final word for anyone, not for Jesus, not for Morris Shapiro, not for Khaled Elabdi and Teresa Kruse, not for me, not for you.
Easter is about the God of Creation declaring death is real, but not the end. God is the end, and the beginning.
I think it is sad that some Christians want to make that truth so small it includes only people like them instead of celebrating that in raising Jesus God sent the message that no walls, no earthly powers, no religion, and no belief can triumph or limit who God is and what God chooses to do.
That is what makes Easter Easter!
linnposts.com 
This is a lot closer to what I believe than what I’ve heard from others. I’m just about at the end of my filling things away. We leave Sunday for Carlsbad CA and will be home the following Wednesday – so very quick trip. Buzz will see Howard when we’re there. I’ll bet you are looking over your garden area and at least making a mental list of what to put where. Hope to see you in not too long a time. Hugs- tao
Treasure Omdahl2015 10th St. SEEast Grand Forks MN 56721 218 201-2558 c “Be well, do good work and keep in touch” – Garrison Keillor
Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2014 22:14:19 +0000 To: taomdahl@msn.com
Love this especially after a week with my atheist Jewish/ best friend who lost both her mom and dad ( two great social activists) to cancer in the last month…I will share with her.
Happy Easter to you Jan.
Dixcy
And to you, Dixcy. Hope the Blog helps in very sad circumstances.
I’m preaching this Sunday about why Jesus had scars.
One of my sermon checkers said, “Great sermon. Easy to follow; we got what you were saying about scars. But you were a little literal about the resurrection for my tastes.”
This came as a shock, but then I started thinking about literalism. It comes in many forms. There’s, at minimum, three ways to read the Bible, IMHO, .
The first is as a conservative, where everything is the literal word of God and MUST have HISTORICALLY happened. That’s what most people mean when they stated they read the bible “literally.” I was there when I was young. One of Kate and my first arguments was whether Jonah was literally swallowed by the big fish or not.
The second way to read the Bible is as a liberal, where stupid things like the resurrection and miracles COULDN’T have historically happened. That’s its own form of literalism. I was there in seminary and a little while after.
But now I’m a progressive, which I define as neither right nor left but forward. It means I don’t really care if something is historical or plausible or not. Questions about a literal resurrection don’t interest me anymore. What interests me is what does these words on the page mean. I care about what it means for our daily life.
So your line of “God raised Jesus and assured the whole world that not even an unjust death, among the worst of evil’s tools, will ever finally win the day…God’s will wins…the power of love wins…good finally triumphs over evil.” feels very progressive. It goes after meaning and doesn’t get lost in the forest of history and arguments over “fact.”
A beautiful post. It created a lot of reflection for me, sorry if this got too long or too off topic.
Luke. Your comment is not too long at all. You described my position well. Always, I hope, pointing forward. And I think your assessment of conservative and liberal readings hit the mark. I think the wisdom writer could have just as well said that “rigidity” rather than “pride” precedes the fall. Or perhaps they are one and the same???
The wisdom writer was onto something… And you are too!