Easter Evening, 2005
Easter Evening, Year A
March 27, 2005
I didn’t manage to restart these notes before Lent as I had planned and stated on the web page, but they are restarted now. I am no longer including my working translation so I can focus more on the interpretive process. Where I have worked such translations over enough, they will be found on my Totally Free Bible Version page, a project to work on Bible translation in public with input from anybody and everybody and the result free to anybody. Whether there is an entry there or not, I will include a link to a translation of the passage on the Bible Gateway, normally from the Contemporary English Version (CEV). I apologize for the long break in posting these notes, and hope the new style will be helpful.
At the bottom of the page is a form for posting response notes. This will allow readers to add their own comments and thoughts.
- Isaiah 25:6-9
Isaiah’s prophecy of the whole world coming to know the Lord. - Psalm 114
A song of passover celebration. - 1 Corinthians 5:6b-8
Response in our lives to Christ’s passover sacrifice–unleavened bread is equated to purity. - Luke 24:13-49
The walk to Emmaus–What do you do when events confuse you?
Overview
One of the key elements of my participatory study method is thinking, or even mentally playing the roles of the various characters involved in the passage. This includes the speaker or writer and the audience. I even ask that students try to look at the passage from God’s point of view. I want to suggest this approach for the few weeks after Easter and up to Pentecost. These passages are a good place to start. They are intended for an easter service conducted late in the day, rather than for vespers, but I think they could be used at any service following Easter, but before the next Sunday.
It’s hard for us to get into the same attitude as the disciples. The story of the resurrection, in one sense, has been ruined for us because we know the ending. We know what’s coming next. But if you look at this passage from the disciples point of view, this period of time is filled with doubt.
First, there is doubt about the resurrection itself. What actually did happen at the tomb? Are those women reporting things accurately? Are the various visions or sightings of angels for real? What does it all mean? The disciples weren’t that much more credulous than any of us. They knew that resurrection wasn’t in the normal course of events. If I read the gospels correctly, they hadn’t imagined that Jesus would rise again. They would surely have found some easier, more rational and even comfortable explanations for the experiences of the women. After all, one can have visions of angels, and it doesn’t have to mean that someone has risen from the dead. The angels might even be there to comfort people because Jesus was dead!
Second, there is doubt about what the resurrection might mean. If Jesus has risen from the dead and he’s not hanging around with us, what exactly is the result? Does anything actually happen? Perhaps they were wondering whether all the world would now be coming to Jerusalem to learn about God as Isaiah had prophesied (Isaiah 25:6-9). Maybe he would establish a new law, new Torah, and a new world order as is celebrated in Psalm 114. Incidentally, those who think that Jewish disciples could not have created what we know as Christianity are not paying adequate attention to this aspect of the disciples’ understanding. They saw Jesus as having accomplished something similar to what Moses accomplished, and they might well have expected him to continue by establishing a new law.
Third, there is doubt about even their own survival. Will the Romans want to come after all those who followed Jesus? Will they be satisfied with just killing the leader? The disciples have no way to tell. They keep a low profile.
With the readings for the second Sunday of Easter we’ll find this doubt start to turn toward proclamation. In our worship celebration we move quickly into a buildup leading to Pentecost. But for the disciples it was no such rapid progress. They wait a long time before they receive the power of God and are ready to move out in proclamation.
And proclamation is criticial in the spread of the new message. I have noted in my new book, Not Ashamed of the Gospel: Confessions of a Liberal Charismatic, that without the proclamation, the transformation of the cross as a symbol, and by the cross of people would be in vain without the proclamation that followed. If Pentecost does not follow easter in the life of the church, then all fails.
There is an additional sense in which this applies to our personal lives. We all go through “cross” experiences both initially and from time to time in our Christian life. With each experience you have at the cross you are going to go through this process. Hopefully it gets easier all the time, and perhaps even unconscious. You go through difficult and are discouraged. God acts in your life in a powerful way, but you are confused as to just what is going on and why things happened as they did. Then you realize that Jesus Christ is really alive, not just back in Palestine in the first century, but in your own life. You get clarity; doubts disappear. But then you need to receive again the filling of the Holy Spirit, empowering you in proclamation of who Jesus is and what he has done. It always has to end up in proclamation.
Isaiah 25:6-9
Of the many possible responses to the resurrection, this represents looking forward, looking forward in hope and confidence for something extraordinary to happen. Jesus is alive, and that means that the hopes of the prophets of old will be accomplished. The nations have been veiled, they have not known YHWH or his power. They need release. They need to see the great feast with God. They need to know God. This hope is also expressed in Revelation 19:5-10.
In reading this passage try to think how it would have been heard in Isaiah’s time, perhaps as much as 700 years before Jesus. Does it sound different to you then? What do you expect to happen? I expect that it might have sounded different to me. I would certainly have expected this prophecy to be fulfilled with less detours. Judah lost its independence, then was taken into exile. Following the return they remained a small, insignificant province of different empires. They regained their independence, only to lose it again to the Romans. That would not be part of my picture. At the same time, I might find the Judean monarchy a questionable basis for establishing the knowledge of YHWH in all the earth. The hope might well have seemed distant.
Move forward to the time of the disciples. As they read this passage while wondering about the resurrection, I suggest that the reading will be very tentative, not very triumphant. It is more like a glimmer of light. Is it possible that Jesus is the one who will fulfill this passage? Is it possible that all people will come to know YHWH? By Pentecost, these thoughts had become proclamation.
But was the prophecy fulfilled or accomplished? Even now, the scene envisioned here is not reality. We still look for the day when everyone knows God’s glory and sits down to God’s feast. What are we going to do about it?
Psalm 114
Psalm 114 celebrates the exodus from Egypt and the wonders that God performed in bringing his people into the land of Canaan. For this passage I suggest reading and thinking from three settings: 1) The Israelites at the exodus, experiencing these things, 2) Israelites throughout their history celebrating these events, and 3) Finally, the disciples seeing Jesus as the passover lamb, slain in providing protection.
It may help to look at this imagery in connection with Psalm 104. I discuss the imagery of that Psalm in my essay God – Creator and Sustainer. If you compare the imagery used, I think you will see that God as creator is the key to both passages. The exodus is seen as God’s creative power in essentially creating the new people of Israel. This imagery is then applied by the Christian community to Jesus, who is both creator and redeemer.
1 Corinthians 5:6b-8
Paul takes a different look at the passover imagery in connection with the death and resurrection of Jesus. You should read the broader context of this passage which is about the church keeping itself, and its image in the community, pure. Paul’s suggested response to the passover is to make and keep ourselves pure. I would suggest that this purity, as seen by Paul in 1 Corinthians, is part of the proclamation we desire to give.
Luke 24:13-49
The walk to Emmaus, found only in Luke 24:13-49, is perhaps the most profound response to the resurrection. People have a very negative view of confusion. But confusion, constructively handled, can be a great opening to new insight and understanding. Face it, when you know all there is to know about a subject and are confident you need research no more, you don’t discover new things. The people filled with certainty were in the leadership in Jerusalem, and in a totally different way, amongst the Roman occupiers. But the people who were learning something new were confused.
Jesus took advantage of the confusion, and the one great merit of these two otherwise unknown disciples. He found in their confusion an opening for witness and he took it up. Walking along, he discussed the scriptures and recent events with them, and he was clearly totally convincing. It’s interestin that they knew the scriptures well enough for this to happen. Sometimes we wait for the Holy Spirit to enlighten us, but we haven’t taken advantage of what’s already available. When the Holy Spirit wants to enlighten us, his task is like teaching graduate physics to a child who refuses to do his first grade math homework. We need to have this material in our minds. We need to know the basics if we are going to move on to greater things.
Another key is that they recognized Jesus when they entered into fellowship together. So often we see the time of enlightenment as the time when we received the facts, the information. But it is in fellowship with Jesus that we really get to know him and enter into a relationship with him. That is when we enter into the kingdom.
Jesus may be disappointed with the disciples, but he still provides them with the evidence they need to bring their faith to life and to get them started proclaiming the gospel.
Put yourself in the disciples shoes. When do you think you would have believed? At the first report of visions to the women at the tomb? (Of if you are imagining yourself at the tomb, would the vision of the angels be enough for you?) Would it have required Jesus to appear in person? To eat? Or would you, like Thomas, need to feel the nail prints?
Be honest. Remember: All of these responses were ones of disciples.