This post explores ideas of theology and faith for our present age of destruction.
I had this entry lined up for Easter weekend but couldn’t get it past the finish line as it grew and grew. No worries, it’s still Easter season according to the church calendar!
I’ve been reflecting on a curious trend. Many of my dear friends, those who grew up in the church, served on staff, preached, wrote books, are now just DONE. Most responding to the daily nonsense conservative Christian brands are spewing on us. (But that’s another post.)
Watching folks process their faith due to harm and hypocrisy has me rethinking what is the point of the resurrection story? What does it do for us? Or, why bother with resurrection at all…?
On Deconstructing the Evangelical Resurrection
Resurrection is THE climactic event in the Christian faith.
In the gospel stories, the pace quickens around the Passion—the final week before Jesus is crucified. It’s chronicled in notable detail, unraveling in a flurry until the final scene: a state-sanctioned execution followed by…a magical resurrection.
We know the story. So what potential meaning can we glean today?
Sunday School Answers
Many Christians believe the resurrection is a tool to exploit for cosmic deliverance from ‘sin’. What ‘sin’ means varies based on tradition. Most think ‘sin’ is an inherited ‘condition’ from Adam (who I guess was a real person? nah) that we automatically inherit including, *checks notes* gods looming wrath….
(The other way to view ‘sin’ is to consider it all that prevents us from living out the fullness of our humanity, but that’s another post for another time.)
Many (most?) contemporary churches in North America adopt a theological posture using resurrection as THE tool to “save believers” from—get this—a vengeful and wrath filled god.
The idea follows a simplistic linear path of “salvation” where: all of humanity is sinful, god hates sin, god is holy, and because of his (he’s a dude) holiness, god cannot look upon sin, and therefore those who do not say certain prayers will receive eternal judgement at the hand of the angry god.
These beliefs are odd, yet many Christians believe in them. It’s kinda sad because it’s a small sanitized version of a grand story for collective liberation….
Many readers will be familiar with the ‘road to salvation’ I just laid out. I’m sure you’ve stopped to consider how weird it is. God as a violent and dysregulated deity filled to the brim with wrath that only a suitable *checks notes* blood sacrifice can satiate further calamity.
Sounds like a bad plot from a vampire novel.
But let’s be real. We must dig past typical beliefs on salvation/deliverance because not only are they downright awful, they paint a picture of God through the lens of violent societies, cultures, and theologians.
You heard me right, what many believe about god and the resurrection is filtered through the violent worldviews of the interpreters.
The typical/popularized theological takes on what the resurrection does is built through on anemic, chalky, and bland salvation designed thru the imagination of theological whiteness. This version of salvation is woefully small.
A more captivating story of liberation, one that reaches beyond the broken Reformed/fundamentalist/evangelical worldview casually accepted by the faithful, lies in the cultivation of a more expansive imagination surrounding liberation.
Liberation as in collective liberation. One that has real implications in the past, present, and future. I don’t mean a liberation packaged in the ridiculous belief of escaping this world for heaven in the clouds. That ain’t it. Rather, through the example of Jesus, and re-interpreted by many theologians on the margins (James Cone anybody?), liberation is a language best understood through the voice of the disinherited (Howard Thurman anybody?). Voices that triumph amidst the dark, raising hell to announce that tangible and material liberation shared by ALL in the here and NOW is possible.
I want this liberation.
A liberation beyond the sterile and domesticated vision many Christians in the west have come adopt, settling for immaterial scraps cheap grace. More on this later.
Reducing the resurrection for a ticket to heaven.
In North America, malformed pillars like rugged individualism, white supremacy, capitalism, patriarchy, and ableism, informs many (most?) theological beliefs that produces a reductionist view of the resurrection. Too many believe the whole point of Easter—the whole point of the faith—is Jesus died for MY sins, and if one simply utters a specific prayer the individual soul will spend eternity in heaven. That’s it. A vapid theological proposition that turns the cosmic story of redemption into a flimsy ‘get out of jail free card’ for the holder.
“Spend eternity with Jesus in heaven!” reads the card. Heaven being an oddly immaterial place that has curiously little biblical reference given how much airtime it gets in many pulpits.
The belief in ‘heaven’ is also out of place because the resurrection is about Jesus rising from the grave and emerging from the tomb in a body. Bodies are substance. Bodies are material. Indeed, the orthodox view in Christianity is a bodily resurrection promised to all of us. (Christian beliefs posit that in the end a bodily resurrection for all transpires, which is WILD when you think about it.)
A bodily resurrection happens in a BODY and is promised in the renewed heaven/earth combo (see The Book of Revelations). In other words, a material resurrection for a material world.
Unfortunately, many of us have been force fed a malformed retelling of the Easter story that turns the entire cataclysmic event into a quick and cheap transaction—a Golden Ticket to escape the violence and destruction of a “vengeful jealous god”. A LOT of churches follow this belief and I cannot emphasize enough how it falls woefully short to the MAGNITUDE of the hope Jesus embodied.
The question to ponder is: how do so many church traditions land in such a shallow place? The answer is simple when you connect the historical dots.
Creating god in our own image.
When faith traditions go off the rails they must fabricate theological worldviews to accommodate their ideals.
Traditions, like evangelical Protestants, have shoehorned convenient ‘truths’, like white supremacy/Christian nationalism, into their beliefs, twisting the Bible to accommodate. The same thing happens for resurrection. Here’s how.
An angry, dysfunctional, dysregulated god is in fact designed specifically to match how the ideal men (always men) should (are) act in the world! If we track the history of the Americas, there’s a direct correlation between the violence and trauma in medieval Europe (we could go further back), and theological underpinnings that require the violent and vengeful god figure.
(An entry point for this thought is Resmaa Menakem’s book, My Grandmother’s Hands.)
Tracking Trauma
When we follow the trauma we discover a connection. From medieval Europe (things were nasty across the continent), to Europeans exporting that trauma overseas to commit genocide against Indigenous Peoples in the Americas (Doctrine of Discovery and Manifest Destiny), to the trauma white men perpetrated against enslaved Africans (using the Bible as justification), to Jim Crow and segregation, to the New Jim Crow, all the way to the Christian Nationalism joined to the emerging Republican/fascist empire.
The theological worldviews that uphold these evil systems were produced through a lens of trauma. A ‘feedback loop’ producing belief systems to match the contemporary ideological and behavioral expectations of social power holders.
Now, updating theology and belief systems to match culture shifts is normal. Every generation should do it. Some traditions change far slower than others (Roman Catholic). Some don’t change at all (some Orthodox). One would just hope that the teachings of Jesus would act as THE filter through which all understanding is processed. Sadly, Jesus is not the standard in popular evangelical and non-denominational traditions. In fact, I am convinced that today’s conservative Christian would be first in line to cast stones and celebrate the lynching of Jesus, siding with the empire, because he wasn’t obeying the law. I digress.
Today, we must interrogate and ultimately reject widespread beliefs that design and cherish a violent and malevolent god. A god who cannot “look upon sin” because he is “holy”. A god with a deeply violent predisposition, filled with wrath, (which evangelicals in particular consider an endearing quality), that must be satiated or god will fly off the handle and destroy wayward souls for—get this—all eternity.
If you’re reading that last paragraph and wondering, boy Rohadi, that’s messed up. I’m with you. It’s not only messed up, it’s also directly correlated to the way white men design god to look like themselves.
Phew.
And now for some examples….
Evangelicals believe in life after death where only those who utter an incantation called the “sinner’s prayer” are safe from suffering and punishment of eternal conscious* torment. Note, the conscious part of this eternal damnation. Evangelicals want the condemned to be awake for eternal punishment and in turn create a violent god to accommodate their lust for violence!! This belief system requires ‘Frankensteining’ (piecing together a monster) theology to match evangelical tolerance for said violence.
*(Many traditions that used ‘conscious’ in doctrinal beliefs have since removed it, which demonstrates how casual belief systems in traditions reliant on conspiracy theory and propaganda are, and how easily they can change.)
I’m not surprised that domineering Christian traditions like evangelicalicalism produce a god in the image of their warring men sent to conquer, subdue, and dominate the world using whatever means of annihilation to achieve the cause.
To make the connection clear: the violent blood thirsty god many were told about in church is largely built to match and justify the behaviors behind the violent and bloody conquest of the colonial/capitalist enterprise.
That’s why terms like ‘satiate’ are used to explain how god, filled with desires for wrath, can be subdued. And the mechanism designed to get a violent and malevolent (but somehow loving?) god off your back for eternity, is to kill somebody else in your place. You know how it is—god needs violence!
Back to Jesus and the cross.
Deconstructing Resurrection
The violent blood-thirsty god who annihilates the majority of souls for eternity doesn’t match Jesus who speaks to a distinctly oppositional hope that includes: setting the captives free; to displacing oppressive systems with teachings like “the last shall be first and the first last”; and of course the foundation of embodying a radical and wide ethic of love.
(I’m not trying to overlook the obvious biblical connections between God and violent conquest in the Old Testament. I am, however, trying to note the importance of filtering our understanding through the teachings of Jesus.)
We CAN forgo the atonement theories (after all they’re only opinions) that favor medieval understandings of transactional salvation for something better.
Resurrection as Magic
Earlier, I referred to the resurrection as ‘magic’. I did so because that’s what it is. Resurrection defies all senses and rationalities as Jesus escapes the tomb on the third day.
(As an aside, it’s curious we have very few works of art that depict those three days. I tried to design something in my coloring book Soul Coats that my BFF Riley Rossmo wound up drawing. It’s pretty neat. Here’s what the original looks like.)
If I had to choose core beliefs in the Christian faith, a bodily resurrection is the one. Without it, you still have important teachings, but miss—well—the magic.
What does the resurrection do?
Back to my initial question.
What does the resurrection actually solve; why did Jesus have to die?; or what does a resurrection accomplish/fix/change in this world? These grand questions require cosmic (as in so big they cover the cosmos) answers. Or to bring it smaller, perhaps the magic is fully contained in an invitation towards the discover of greater human potential. Perhaps this is the compelling reason why the resurrection matters today. (And saving my soul from the fires of hell ain’t it.)
To be frank, I don’t know if we can land on a ‘single’ reason “why the resurrection”. To do so runs the risk of replicating postures of Christian supremacy (there is only one truth and it’s my Christianity). But I do know the first step in re-discovering the potential of the resurrection is to discard old formation.
You can give it up. I don’t know who needs the permission, but you can try new things.
The pragmatics of the event.
Contrary to various nonsense beliefs re: who killed Jesus; he was put to death by the state. A political dissident lynched by an imperial force colonizing the land. Rome put Jesus to death. Not our sins. Not the Jewish leaders. Rome did. This is a key component.
The Audacity of Resurrection
When I contemplate the resurrection I must first hold my disbelief. Jesus rose from the dead! What?! Through my disbelief I also hold the notions: his death has cosmic (changes the world) implications; is transcendent (beyond our ordinary perceptions); and contemporary (still applies today).
The cosmic implications that directly affected the malformed systems (powers) of abject violence and domination. The powers two-thousand years ago are similar to the systems/powers at work today. Same destruction. Different name. Systems of violence and domination from colonial legacies, white supremacies, ableism, patriarchy, etc. Nations of violence at present from Israel, America, Russia…and the list goes on. Daunting malformed powers operating with impunity starting with violence against the most vulnerable first.
The Antidote
Resurrection is THE opposing force—the counter and resistance—to ALL of these malformed powers emanating from evil. Not a spiritual evil, although if you want to qualify that you can. Violence and subjugation we are perpetuating on each other.
Jesus countered all of it in a distinct way: Christ chose a non-violent opposition to counter the death dealing forces of empires.
Take note: the counter is non-violent.
Non-violence is also unequivocally, unquestionably, unreservedly in direct opposition to theological justifications embodied by countless Christian traditions at work in our day and age.
In the story, Jesus likely knew that the culmination of the empire’s power was exhibited visually through a grotesque crucifixion. And you’ve heard it said, body broken for you…. The story goes, Jesus appears before clandestine trials, is humiliated, tortured, body distorted as the life slowly left his body pinned to a cross in the piercing desert sun.
And he died.
Three days his body rested in a tomb. Then on the third day the tomb magically opened. The guards nowhere to be found. And Jesus is out tending to the garden, waiting to reveal himself to the women coming to anoint his (no longer) entombed body.
While deconstructing your faith, suitable alternative stories are required to make sense of key moments. This is the big one.
Jesus usurps the power of death through his resurrection, and in the process snatches the keys of death dealing ways from all malformed powers ranging from empires, to economies, to religions, to supremacies, to violence, ALL. OF. IT. absorbed and defeated as the ultimate declaration that renewed possibilities for wholeness and liberation is possible and present.
What might the resurrection mean for us today?
I believe the resurrection is the invitation into the possibilities of wholeness and fullness of life that Jesus spoke about. He asked his followers to embody specific teachings including: “the last shall be first, and the first last”, “thy kingdom come on earth…,” “love thy neighbor, and yourself, and like it,” and my favorite joined to the goal Jesus had in mind, “…to set the captives and oppressed free.”
Sit with these for a moment (or a lifetime).
Note, ALL of these invitations are deeply material. They require our presence. They must be embodied. As the resurrection speaks of a body defying death, we too take on the work of material liberation in the here and now. The resurrection is the forerunner and invitation for us to become participants in the unfolding hope that is HERE and now—where ALL can find fullness of life, collective liberation, and a material salvation from all that seeks to make us less whole.
Resurrection opens the doors to the possibilities of new life in a magical way.