At one level, of course, the continued puzzlement of the disciples is a mark of the story’s authenticity. If someone had been making it all up a generation later, as many have suggested, they would hardly have had such a muddle going on. More particularly, nobody would have made up the remarkable detail of the cloth around Jesus’ head, folded up in a place by itself, or the even more extraordinary fact that Jesus is not immediately recognised, either here, or in the evening on the road to Emmaus, or the later time, cooking breakfast by the shore. The first Christians weren’t prepared for what actually happened. Nobody could have been. As one leading agnostic scholar has put it, it looks as though they were struggling to describe something for which they didn’t have adequate language.
But this problem isn’t confined to the first century. Ever since then, people have tried to squash the Easter message into conventional boxes that it just won’t fit. There was a classic example in the Times on Good Friday (I know I probably shouldn’t have been reading a Murdoch paper on a holy day, but there you are). In a first leader entitled ”˜Universal Truths’, the writer suggested that the Easter message is one that everyone can sign up to. ”˜Good Friday,’ it says, ”˜commemorates sacrifice, the giving of oneself as a martyr for the love of others, so Easter is the achievement of victory through suffering.’ ”˜These,’ the writer goes on, ”˜are universal spiritual truths. And the more interaction acquaints those of different faiths with the beliefs of others, the clearer is the common acceptance of these truths.’ So, in conclusion, ”˜The Easter message draws the devout together’ (presumably the devout of all religions). ”˜From suffering, goodness can triumph. Death is not final.’ And then, a grand and woefully misleading last sentence: ”˜That is what all faiths in Britain can proclaim and where they can come together this weekend.’
Well, sorry. Of course we must work to find common ground and common purpose with those of all faiths and none. I found myself on a platform in Sunderland not long ago with the deputy chairman of the Muslim Council of Great Britain, discussing these very things. The Archbishop of Canterbury has recently asked me to join a small group working to take forward the discussion of the Open Letter from leading Muslims to the Pope, entitled ”˜A Common Word’. These things matter enormously.
But you don’t achieve anything by downgrading the unique message of Easter.
I am going to be the first to break the T19 comment fast – Yay!
Good for the Bishop of Durham – he doesn’t mess around and has been going round the country in the last couple of weeks preaching the resurrection.
May God richly bless him for strongly preaching the Good News.
He is right. We cannot face the challenge of Islam without the full message of Christianity. Peaceful coexistence, if possible (and this is up to Muslims), yes; surrendering the truth, never.
The Diocese of Durham (in which I lived for the first twenty-two years of my life) has come a long way from the days of David Jenkins.
Wonderful! As one who works to share Christ with Muslims, it is so encouraging to see this message, and to see the Pope’s baptism of a Muslim convert to Christianity (as well as the Pope’s Easter message which Kendall posted below over the weekend). All these messages and actions reaffirm the unique Truth that has been revealed in Christ and are such a bracing contrast to the mushy pluralistic “all faiths are good, all are equally true” nonsense.
May many learn from these messages that it is possible to share our faith lovingly and in a way that is sensitive to and respectful of those of other faiths, and yet does not compromise the truth of the Gospel and our proclamation that Jesus is the only name under heaven through which we might be saved. NT Wright is totally correct to note that most Muslims will indeed respect and expect this. In my experience, the Muslims I know tend not to think much of those who don’t defend their beliefs and act as if they’re not important. The best inter-faith “dialogue” I’ve ever been a part of always occurs when those on both sides are clear in asserting what their faith teaches.
A clear example of Anglicanism at its very best . . . the proclamation of “The Word” and our faith as Christians, presented clearly and unashamedly.
Wright says, “…the church must never stop reminding the world’s rulers and authorities that they themselves will be held to account, and that they must do justice and bring wise, healing order to God’s world ahead of that day.” I would say that the civil authority must “strive” to do justice and “strive” to bring healing order to the world while acknowledging that final justice and healing order will only be achieved upon Jesus’ return. I wouldn’t say to Wright that as a bishop he must bring healing order to the Church ahead of that day. My prayer is that the Lord will be as merciful to Wright for his actions toward the “one body” as the Lord will be to civil authorities who strive to do the right thing in a broken and imperfect world.