Death and Resurrection
Listen: “The Light That Never Fails” by Andra Day
There’s always hope for healing. Even in my darkest days (metaphorical death), I held on to my belief in the possibility of new, resurrected life. Why did I hold on to hope in the face of what felt like emotional and spiritual death? Here’s a glimpse into my thinking. Death leads to new life on a cellular level and at the cosmic level. It seems that life and death are intertwined in every facet of the world in which we live. In fact, death can be “swallowed up” with new life (Isaiah 25:8; I Corinthians 15:55). This is our hope, our longing for the redemption of all things.
One of the most vivid images of the message of Jesus is death and resurrection. As a metaphor it resonates in nature and in mythology. It also inspires us when we hear echoes of this theme in the story of someone who travels to death’s door and then comes back to life again. We love a comeback story.
In nature, we observe the cycle of life and death everywhere we explore—whether in the plant kingdom or the animal kingdom—the death of one species becomes material for new life. Even the ever expanding cosmos goes through cycles of devastation and rebirth (The End of Everything by Katie Mack). In the Midwest, we experience the four seasons as an annual witness to death and new life as Fall/Winter emerges into Spring/Summer.
In mythology, it’s not uncommon to have a god of fertility who annually dies and rises again (such as Osiris) or a god with a more elaborate story of death and eventual life that emerges from death (like Dionysus). These gods are, in effect, agricultural gods who are believed to bestow fertility and prosperity. Modern mythology (in the form of comic book super heroes) is full of examples of super heroes who die and come back to life again (like Superman, Batman, Oliver Queen, Spider-Man, and Nightcrawler).
In movies and real life, we love a story where a person is on the brink of death or immense suffering and comes back triumphantly. I might recall the story of Simba in “The Lion King,” or I think about the survivors of the 1996 Everest tragedy told by Jon Krakauer (Into Thin Air). My new favorite climbing documentary is an amazing come back story: Meru. If you haven’t seen Meru, do so. Stick with it. The last half of the documentary is simply extraordinary. Jimmy Chin, Renan Ozturk, and Conrad Anker accomplish a real-life, super hero feat (and Andra Day’s song is magical). Their commitment to each other and their tenacity against impossible odds is a story of legends.
Where does this place the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus? Some people have claimed that his death and resurrection is another myth. It represents a universal truth, but should not be taken literally. We are to draw inspiration from it as we would from any story of this kind.
One of my favorite authors of the twentieth century is C. S. Lewis. Lewis was an atheist who came to believe in Jesus. Lewis taught mythology and literary criticism. He wrote modern myths like The Chronicles of Narnia (for children) and Till We Have Faces (for adults). He was also a prolific Christian author. One of his short essays was entitled “Myth Became Fact” (essay in God in the Dock). He writes about how many people argue that the death and resurrection of Jesus is a myth because it represents a universal truth. However, Lewis turns the argument around. If something is eternally true, wouldn’t you expect to find echoes of it everywhere? Maybe death and resurrection is at the heart of ultimate reality because it reflects something deeply true in the heart of God (or the Universe), and it is revealed spectacularly in Jesus.
You can ponder that. Suffice it to say, there is always hope for healing. There’s always hope for a comeback, even in the darkest of situations. Death and resurrection is hardwired into the Universe and into our hearts. Creation. Death. Re-creation. It’s our story—my story. It’s our hope—my hope. Communities and friendships thrive when they are built on this hope for healing and redemption.
Shalom
©realfredherron 2020
