Changes
In the last three or four months, I have been struck by the feeling that the world as we knew it is ending. Primarily I feel that way as an American, and to some extent as a citizen of the world, but mostly as a Christian.
I am not the first person to think this. Imagine the disciples on this day. And as soon as they, perhaps, after a couple of days, got their minds and hearts around the fact that Jesus was dead, he goes and resurrects. What an inconvenience for the disciples!
Oh, I forgot, they didn't lived in an "it's all about me" society. They just did what any normal human being whose leader and friend appears after a violent death. They didn't believe it; they rejected the stories of their peers and of course those silly women they tolerated even while Jesus treated them like human beings. The disciples knew "dead is dead" (to quote the last title of LOST, probably not an accident that it came this week). It wasn't a matter of them wanting to believe it; normal working class people know dead people don't rise from the grave.
So they probably said, "this is the end of the world as we know it." It may be that every generation faces some event that makes them say, "the world will never be the same again." But most of the time we look back on history and see that yes, the event did change life somewhat but didn't really alter human existence that much. Only a few events really do, and those often just locally or for a certain group of people. The resurrection stands at the top of the heap of those events.
As for the political landscape, yes, some things will change, but there will also be a backlash. But I feel more discouraged about the slow, drip-drip-drip changes that are obvious in the young people's attitudes today based on their lack of knowledge of history. As Cicero said, those who don't know history are doomed to be children forever.
I am not the first person to think this. Imagine the disciples on this day. And as soon as they, perhaps, after a couple of days, got their minds and hearts around the fact that Jesus was dead, he goes and resurrects. What an inconvenience for the disciples!
Oh, I forgot, they didn't lived in an "it's all about me" society. They just did what any normal human being whose leader and friend appears after a violent death. They didn't believe it; they rejected the stories of their peers and of course those silly women they tolerated even while Jesus treated them like human beings. The disciples knew "dead is dead" (to quote the last title of LOST, probably not an accident that it came this week). It wasn't a matter of them wanting to believe it; normal working class people know dead people don't rise from the grave.
So they probably said, "this is the end of the world as we know it." It may be that every generation faces some event that makes them say, "the world will never be the same again." But most of the time we look back on history and see that yes, the event did change life somewhat but didn't really alter human existence that much. Only a few events really do, and those often just locally or for a certain group of people. The resurrection stands at the top of the heap of those events.
As for the political landscape, yes, some things will change, but there will also be a backlash. But I feel more discouraged about the slow, drip-drip-drip changes that are obvious in the young people's attitudes today based on their lack of knowledge of history. As Cicero said, those who don't know history are doomed to be children forever.
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