As a teenager I attended an evangelical church with my friend for a while. The people I found there were welcoming and sincere, and very secure in their faith. As a young person beset with doubts, to be honest I envied them their certainty. My heart desperately wanted to ‘accept Jesus into my heart as my saviour’ as they used to say. However, my head would not agree, no matter how hard I tried. Original sin, the virgin birth, the atonement, the resurrection – they made no rational sense to me.
When I left home to study Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Leeds I retained a sense of guilt about being unable to accept the mainstream Christian worldview. So it came as a relief to discover, in my biblical criticism classes, that bible stories of Jesus’ death and resurrection were written down so long after the events that they were unverifiable by Jesus’ contemporaries.
The study of early Christian texts in the context of the times in which they were written has led biblical scholars to conclude that there were various groups among the early followers of Jesus who interpreted his life and teachings in different ways and produced a variety of literature. Their thinking was influenced by the ideas of the time, for example Jewish apocalyptic thought, pagan myths of dying and rising gods, and mystery cults, whose initiates would die to their old selves and be reborn. The stories about Jesus are more likely to reflect the needs of the communities who shared them, rather than be an accurate historical portrait. By the time some of these stories were collected into the writings that we now know as the New Testament, the view of Jesus as Son of God and Saviour had prevailed.
Biblical scholar Burton Mack believes the resurrection stories originated in the congregations established by St Paul. For the first followers of Jesus, the importance of him as the founder of their movement was directly related to the significance they attached to his teachings. What mattered most was what these teachings called for in terms of ideas, attitudes and behaviour, but as the Jesus movement spread, groups in different locations and circumstances began to think about the kind of life Jesus must have lived. Some began to think of him in the role of a sage, others as a prophet, or an exorcist come to rid the world of evil. This shift from interest in Jesus’ teachings to questions about Jesus’ person, authority, and social role eventually produced a host of different mythologies. The mythology most familiar to Christians of today developed in northern Syria and Asia Minor, where Jesus’ death was interpreted as a martyrdom and a miraculous event of crucifixion and resurrection.
Acknowledging that the stories of the empty tomb are myths freed me to consider alternative interpretations to the ‘fundamentalist’ Christian view that the resurrection was historical fact and the crucifixion was atonement for original sin. I am using Richard Rohr's definition of myth here. As he says in his book, The Universal Christ, “Remember, myth does not mean “not true,” which is the common misunderstanding; it actually refers to things that are always true!”
The resurrection can be interpreted as spiritual truth rather than physical truth – Jesus was experienced by his followers as Lord/God after his death – this is a view often expressed by liberal Christians.
The resurrection can be interpreted as a psychological truth – experiences of the risen Christ were an expression of the great love that his friends had for him, just as many people today experience the presence of loved ones after their deaths.
The resurrection can be interpreted as an archetypal or mystical truth – Jesus represents the dying and rising god motif, which tells cosmic truths about life and death, linking the dark unconscious with the light of consciousness, leading to wholeness – this view is influenced by Jungian psychology and often expressed by modern mystics.
Two liberal Christian writers who have influenced my understanding of the resurrection are Richard Rohr and Matthew Fox. They both understand the resurrection in terms of the 'Universal Christ' or 'Cosmic Christ.'
Richard Rohr says in his book The Universal Christ, “In the resurrection, Jesus Christ was revealed as the Everyman and Everywoman in their fulfilled state... The “Christ journey” is indeed another name for every thing... Resurrection is contagious, and free for the taking. It is everywhere visible and available for those who have learned how to see, how to rejoice, and how to neither hoard nor limit God's ubiquitous gift.”
Matthew Fox says in his Easter blog, “The “paschal mystery” of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus the rabbi is an archetypal reminder about how, as science now teaches us, all things in the cosmos live, die and resurrect. Supernovas, galaxies, solar systems, planets, beings that inhabit our planet—we all have our time of existence and of passing out of existence. But we leave something behind for further generations and that constitutes resurrection. Supernovas leave elements behind in a great explosion that seed other solar systems, planets and even our very bodies... Jesus left behind the gift of his teachings... That compassion and justice are what link us to the Divine and that we are to look for the Kingdom of God but within ourselves and among others in community for the love that is at once our love of neighbor and our love of God... We do not die once. We all die many times. Life does that to us with our losses, our betrayals, our own mistakes and emptying out. But we also resurrect on a regular basis as well. We forgive, we are forgiven, we bottom out, we move on, we give birth anew... The depths of the valley of death do not overcome the power of life which makes things new again.”
My journey with the resurrection has been a journey from head to heart. I am no longer struggling to accept Jesus' resurrection as a one-off historical event in one person's life. I now understand it as a cosmic truth or the archetypal pattern of every human life.
For me, the resurrection story is a universal truth illustrating the transformative power of love. Jesus suffers and dies. He is healed and lives. Jesus is changed or ‘transfigured’ by his death and resurrection; the witnesses are changed by their experience of the presence of Jesus’ spirit after his death. Just as we are all changed by suffering – by grief, betrayal, despair and shame – through love we heal and live anew. The message I take from it is that love is the most powerful force of all, stronger even than death. Rejoice!
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