April 14, 2003
ANOTHER VIEW:
Easter miracle: Utterly impossible ... inexpressibly fantastic
___By Brett Younger
___Fifty-two years ago, Bobby Thomson, the New York Giants' third baseman, stood nervously in the batter's box. In the bottom of the ninth inning, in the final game of a playoff, his team trailed the Brooklyn Dodgers 4-2, with two men on base. The Dodgers' pitcher Ralph Branca hurled a fastball toward the plate. Thomson swung, connected, and the ball sailed over the left-field wall into history.
___This improbable event became known as "The Shot Heard 'Round the World" and "The Miracle at Coogan's Bluff." The next day, Oct. 4, 1951, in The New York Herald, Red Smith wrote: "Now it is done. The story ends, and there is no way to tell it. The art of fiction is dead. Reality has strangled invention. Only th
e utterly impossible, the inexpressibly fantastic can ever be plausible again."
___Red Smith may have overstated the significance of that particular baseball game, but his words are appropriate for Easter. In the light of the resurrection, how can anything be unimaginable? This story is utterly impossible, inexpressibly fantastic and wildly implausible. Truth has overcome anything fiction could envision. Now it is done, and there is no way to tell it.
___The women rush to try to tell the disciples their implausible story. They should have taken a moment to calm down and plan what they were going to say, because they sound delirious: "We went to the tomb. The stone, the huge stone, is rolled away. The body isn't there, but there were two men in shiny clothes. We wish we had asked their names. We should have gotten more details. The shiny men told us Jesus wasn't there and then something about him being alive. We think it might be true."
___As they tell their story, they realize how impossible it sounds. The King James Version reads: "their words seemed to them idle tales." The New English Bible: "the story appeared to be nonsense." Other translations have "a silly story," "a foolish yarn," "sheer humbug," "empty talk." Clarence Jordan paraphrases, "It seemed to the men like so much female chatter"--whatever that means. It's easy to imagine a few of the men forming a circle over to the side: "You know, denial is the first stage of grief." "None of us slept well the last two nights; maybe exhaustion has gotten to them." "I know that I don't see straight early in the morning. I'm useless until I've had a cup of coffee."
___Finally, they turn to the women and say: "Sit down. Take a deep breath. Think about what you're saying. Could it be that nothing really happened?"
___"Nothing really happened" is the explanation that's carried the day. The chocolate bunnies and colored eggs are a cover. Most people are far too rational for this story. It isn't easy to swallow life-conquering death.
___If you ask children what Easter's about, most of them will talk about what they'll be given--new clothes, candy, Easter eggs, a visit to Grandma's.
___They might say, as I heard a 10-year-old put it: "I don't believe in the Easter bunny, but I still enjoy Easter."
___The temptation for all of us is to reject anything that can't be scientifically verified. We give up mystery in favor of technology.
___Sometimes we think of imagination as an obstacle to clear thinking. The world is, in so many ways, getting worse every day, and yet most people choose to believe that more information, inventions, research, artificial hearts and space colonies will make everything right.
___But if all we have are the verifiable facts, then the world is futile, and the most reasonable response is despair. If we limit our understanding of life to what we can measure, then we'll be overcome by bitterness.
___Verifiable facts are the only hope most people have, and facts don't bring nearly enough hope.
___Easter is the belief that there's data that won't compute--that there's more than what we can see and touch. We focus too much of our attention on the grave. The tomb is far too small a focus, for the resurrection is about the truth that's bigger than all the facts.
___The resurrection is the miracle that changes the undeniable defeat of Good Friday into an amazing victory. The church itself is the strongest argument that something wonderful happened at Easter. How do you get from disheartened, despondent, cowardly disciples who watch the cross from a safe distance to the courageous, fiery activists who become the church? You have to assume that something happened to account for this dramatic transformation and for the existence of the church. What could have made the disciples believe with all their hearts that Jesus was raised, come back to them in some mysterious way?
___Unless, of course, in some mysterious way, he did.
___What evidence do we have that something happened on that first Easter? We're the evidence. William Sloane Coffin writes: "Easter demands not sympathy for the crucified Christ, but loyalty to the risen Christ. The proof of Easter is not a rolled-away stone, but carried-away Christians."
___Through 20 centuries, all kinds of people have felt the Spirit of Christ with them. The church is made up of people who believe something they can't explain.
___The novelist Douglas Coup-land tells of visiting Washington, D.C., and seeing a large number of tourists with white canes. As he got closer, he realized it was a group of blind people. They heard him walking toward them, said hello, handed him a camera, and asked him to take their picture.
___Does that strike you as odd--blind people with cameras? They can't see, but they believe in sight. Coupland writes, "I'm thinking that's not a bad attitude."
___There are people whose hearts have been broken in too many ways, but they still believe in life. They keep the door of belief open just a crack.
___They believe the story of hope is true, even if some of the facts aren't that clear.
___Could it be that we can't put our hands or even our minds around everything that's true? Could it be that the greatest truth is bigger than our perceptions?
___Could it be that for all who listen, there is a voice; for all with eyes to see, there is a light; for all with open hearts, there is a hope?
___Brett Younger is pastor of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth. His column appears monthly on the Standard's website.
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