Happy Easter

Meditations on the Political Meaning of Easter
Passion Week is at once an intensely personal experience and a political—even cosmic—event. Here are four reminders of the political layers of the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection.
by Heidi Unruh
(http://www.esa-online.org/Article.asp?RecordKey=FA9D37AB-8D11-4294-903C-F5888DD4D7A7)

Passion Week is at once an intensely personal experience and a political—even cosmic—event. Here are four reminders of the political layers of the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection.


1. In “An Evangelical Vision for Public Policy,” Ron Sider describes how the resurrection is central to our ongoing work for justice:

“It was the resurrection that convinced the early Christians that Jesus’ Messianic claim was valid and that the long expected Messianic kingdom had genuinely broken into history. As a result, the early church imitated Jesus’ sweeping challenge to the status quo by offering the world a new society incarnating Jesus’ kingdom values on economic sharing, nonviolence, and the equality of all people. Women and slaves became persons. The rich engaged in economic sharing as there was need. Even as they burned at the stake they loved their enemies. The very character of the early Christian community was itself tangible evidence that the Messianic age of peace and justice, so long expected by the prophets, had already begun.

“However, it was also painfully clear that the old age of evil, injustice, and violence still persisted, even in the church to a certain degree. Jesus himself had taught that the Kingdom of God had begun with his life and work. He also said that the Messianic kingdom of justice and peace would come to its fullness only at his Second Coming. Christians therefore look forward to a coming day, known only to God, when the risen Christ will return to complete his victory over all evil and injustice, when God’s people will live forever in the presence of the risen Lord.”


2. In “The Political Implications of Resurrection Hope,” John Drury asserts that “we who believe in the resurrection of the dead will challenge the adequacy of even the most progressive sociopolitical agendas, for our hope is found in nothing less than the living Jesus Christ.” Drury offers three ways in which the resurrection should guide “our political thinking, deciding and acting,” excerpted here:

“a) The hope of resurrections points us toward a critical appropriation of the politics of life. By raising his son Jesus from the dead, God has shown himself to be the God of the living, not of the dead. Too much public policy treats death as just a part of life. The resurrection of the dead teaches us that death is the last and greatest enemy of God. Those who hope for resurrection take sides with those who fight against the forces of death in their myriad of forms as a parabolic witness to the resurrection.

“b) The hope of resurrection points us toward a critical appropriation of the economics of generosity. Resurrection is not merely the affirmation of the goodness of the created order but the gift of eternal life beyond any inherent potential. The resurrection of the dead is the ultimate act of generosity, giving what is undeserved and unattainable and unimaginable without the gracious initiative of the living God. So God falls on the side of generosity against scarcity.

“c) The hope of resurrection points us toward a critical appropriation of the rhetoric of hope. In the living Jesus, God speaks a word of promise to the whole creation that by his Spirit he will make all things new. Resurrection hope is not a vague desire for progress or a path of escape from this world, but a sure and certain promise that God is for us and not against us and that he will triumph in the end. God falls on the side of hope against fear.”


3. As one specific example of how the resurrection points us toward the “politics of life,” see a piece by Melanie Weldon-Soiset, “The Death Penalty Denies the Gospel”:

“He was taken before the authorities and subjected to abuse and beatings. No one arose to defend his case with the integrity it deserved. Others will later criticize the prosecution for its thinly-veiled biases. Finally, after a farce of a trial, this afflicted and trampled man was sentenced to die.

“Jesus Christ is not the only one in history who has suffered at the hands of such horrifying injustice. Reggie Clemons, a 37-year-old African-American man from Missouri, is now on death row for a 1991 double murder sentence that is full of errors and scandals. …”


4. As you meditate on how Jesus’ resurrection triumphs over death, scarcity, and fear—and how we are called to be living witnesses to this miracle—join with MCC Haiti staff in Port-au-Prince in singing the anthem of hope, “Because He Lives.”

May the hope, joy and courage of the resurrection be yours in all its fullness!

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