Abraham wondered how a smoking pot could float between a line of sacrificed animals (Genesis 15). Elijah wondered how he could hear and understand a voice when there was no sound (I Kings 19). Peter, James, and John probably tried to figure out just what it was they saw on a mountain top when Jesus was altered in his appearance in a way that couldn't be explained (Matthew 17). And on that Friday, what did Jesus mean about being abandoned by the Father with whom he was One (Matthew 27). Come Sunday morning a resurrected body became visible, even touchable, to those who were closest to the One who had just died and been buried (Matthew 28). What is a resurrection body?
Leaving events unexplained and accepting them on faith is not something that comes easily to mankind. We find it important that we explain all events in some form or fashion. We need to be able to put something in a box, under a scope, or on a scale. Accepting it as something we cannot measure, control, or understand leaves us with an uncomfortable feeling that borders on intolerable. Yet that is exactly what faith calls us to do.
What happened at the end of what we call Holy Week fits into that category of "accept but do not attempt to explain". That appears to be the case any time God intervenes in human history without our request or our permission or our involvement. God acts. We are left to be spectators, wondering why we are here, and what the consequences will be for us both in the current context and in history.
On that Friday afternoon the crowds saw what most deemed to be an impostor, a charlatan, and a threat to their power base in Judaism and Judea. Their solution to the problem Jesus posed was to have him killed in a way that would bring down upon him the curses of God and the masses. They wanted him rejected by the very people who had followed him across the dusty hills and around the Sea.
What they, and we, accomplished through lifestyle decisions was far more evident in the words Jesus cried out from the cross than in the calls for his crucifixion. Jesus was rejected by his people. He was also rejected by his Father. He was rejected by the Godhead of which he himself was a part. He was abandoned and in his cry we hear what?
In that moment we see an event in which no man could play a part. All were spectators. All were ignorant of the divine drama that was taking place on the cross. All were unable to comprehend then and forever how God could abandon a part of Himself. It was a moment in which the divine drama unfolded on a human stage extending into the spiritual realm oblivious to any human audience.
By Hebrew reckoning across the time contained in three days, another event took place that cannot be captured by human understanding. A stone was rolled away from the entrance to a tomb so that sinful humans could see that the dead was dead no longer. This was no creature from some humanly created horror story. This was an event that could only be described as death conquered, overcome, declared irrelevant, no longer to be feared by man. The event hardly can be described as something to be taken into a laboratory.
What happened that weekend? The ancient stories spread by the religious authorities of the day would have us believe that the followers of Jesus came on Saturday evening and stole his body away while assigned guards were sleeping, then went out and spread the word that he had risen from the dead. Faith and the later actions of the disciples of Jesus would lead us to believe that an event had occurred that was divine in its origin, did not involve man in its process, and demanded a response of acceptance or rejection with consequences to be revealed at some future point.
Whatever happened, it was enough to make a group of individuals and those they were able to convince of the truth in this event willing to die rather than deny their belief that all had transpired just as they had said. They were willing to reject power and accept servanthood. They were willing to leave behind homes and families for the need to tell others of what they believed happened. They were willing to declare that the greatest force in history, self-sacrificing love, could even conquer death.
Love happened that weekend. Love offered life in the place of death. Love offered hope in the place of despair. Love offered peace in the place of warfare. Love offered forgiveness in the place of condemnation. To understand this you must understand God. Yet God will not allow himself to be understood. Rather he offers us the assurance that he understands us (Isaiah 55, John 1).
