Finished reading: Resurrecting Easter by John Dominic Crossan 📚
Today marks the beginning of Holy Week for Christians, and every year it seems the focus is on believing the stories happened rather than pondering upon and growing from the question, how are these stories relevant today?
In the Crucifixion story, what we have is a parable against civilization. The kingdom of Rome is a typical kingdom within the normal protocols of this world and, as such, it is based on violent force and imperial coercion. It is simply the normalcy of civilization in Mediterranean place and first-century time. But the kingdom of God is an antitypical kingdom in that it does not even allow violent “fighting” to free Jesus from execution—recall John 18:26. So the Crucifixion and Resurrection story is not simply about Jesus clashing with or triumphing over Pilate, but about a hopeful option for humanity to find a way out of the violence-based civilization it has created for itself.
The true question of faith is not whether resurrection happened or has begun, but rather whether the world is being and will be transformed through our collaboration with Yahweh in Christ! Our lack of faith in the story of Jesus and in the work of Christ has us stuck in the normalcy of civilization.