Wednesday, March 28, 2018

“But we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles…” (I Corinthians 1:23) 

It may sound strange but I think that  there is something fitting about Easter Sunday and April Fool’s Day falling on the same day, April 1.

I have never been a big fan of practical jokes. I think some of them can be downright mean, funny only to the perpetrator(s), and not to the victim, although the victim is supposed to be a good sport and laugh along with the rest of the bystanders, even if he or she has egg all over his or her face.

But in this case, the very ludicrous idea of a crucified Messiah being raised from the dead in Resurrection means that God gets the last and best laugh on the powers of evil, humankind’s sinfulness and self-sanctimony, and the powers that corrupt and destroy God’s Creation. Jesus was crucified as a criminal, mocked and scorned, nailed to a cross and everyone knows that “cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.” (Galatians 3:13). A dead Messiah doesn’t seem much use to anybody. What a funny idea!

Yet our faith asks us to believe that what God did through Jesus on that cross has accomplished a long-held promise that God would address the corruption of  humanity and his Creation through Jesus’ ignoble and humiliating death.

Now on top of all that, God does the impossible and incredible. He raised Jesus from the dead. Whether in the world back then or in our world today, that seems a lot to swallow.  What a funny idea!

Even some Christians struggle with the idea of a physical resurrection. It pushes the boundaries of one’s imagination and one’s knowledge and experience of reality too far. You can’t be serious! Only a fool would ever believe such nonsense. “Foolishness,” so goes the Proverb, “brings joy to those with no sense; a sensible person stays on the right path.” (Proverbs 15:21)

Even so, this sort of "foolishness" – Crucifixion and Resurrection – is God at his ironic and satirical best. “For the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God,” (1 Corinthians 3: 19). In the Cross and the Resurrection God is upsetting the status quo, while the Evil One slips on a banana peel and gets a pie in the face. “This foolish plan of God is wiser than the wisest of human plans, and God’s weakness is stronger than the greatest of human strength.” (1 Corinthians 1:25, NLT)

“Instead,” Paul wrote, “God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise.” (1 Corinthians 1:27) Look at what God can do with an ugly, wooden cross and a cold, dark tomb. God turns evil tragedy into divine comedy.  God flips an horrendous ending into a new beginning. God turns the tables on the forces of evil who thought they had the last laugh when they crucified Jesus– they aren’t laughing now! The “joke” is on them. “It all sounds foolish to them and they can’t understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means.” (1 Corinthians 2:14, NLT)

I place great trust and authority in this radical Story of Jesus’ Crucifixion and Resurrection. If that makes me a fool, well so be it!   I will be in good company come Easter Sunday! 

Dale