A Good Story

Even God likes a good story. – Rabbi Ben Kamin, chapter heading from his book Thinking Passover

The good Rabbi is obviously thinking of the Passover story, which most of us Christians know primarily through Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments. He is also thinking of the stories families share at the Seder meal.

It's fitting that we consider stories, and Passover. This year is one of the rare times when the Jewish feast falls close to the Christian feast of Easter.

Remember, the meal Jesus shared with his followers was a Passover seder. According to Rabbi Kamin, each family develops its own tradition, and sometimes says slightly different words. So perhaps it was not shocking when Jesus said, "This is my Body. Eat it in remembrance of me."

I wonder what stories the people in that Upper Room shared. Perhaps they retold stories from Jesus' ministry to that point. "Hey, remember that big haul of fish?" "Yeah, but what about all those fish and loaves? We must have fed 5,000 people, not counting women and children!"

By this point, Jesus knew he was doomed. He had embarrassed the religious authorities once too often. Their power was threatened by the strength of his teachings, and his popularity.

There was also the political problem - too many people thought Jesus was the military messiah they had been hoping for. It was possible an enthusiastic crowd would riot. Which would bring down the Roman army. The religious authorities knew that most of the Roman army had little use for their people, and that the soldiers would relish slaughtering a few Jews.

Their choice was: kill this guy, or risk having thousands killed instead?

I wonder which one of us would have made a different choice.

I'd suggest that a similar logic was used when it was argued that we attack the terrorists before we saw the proof of a mushroom cloud.

The person promoting that logic claimed to be a Christian. Many of the people who reelected that person claim to be Christians. Yet this logic of striking before you are even touched is a calculus that the Pharisees and Sudducees would have understood very well.

I digress.

Some people believe that Jesus was destined for Crucifixion from the dawn of time. They believe that God had this in mind from the time of Adam and Eve. They believe that God wanted a human sacrifice to redeem human sinfulness.

As far as I'm concerned, this is just so wrong on so many levels. How can we worship a God who would allow his only son to be tortured and murdered in the most barbaric manner possible? If Jesus' death was preordained, and we have been redeemed, then every Christian born since the first century of the Common Era is off scot free. We don't need to do anything, we don't need to worry. Jesus was our ultimate "Stay Out of Hell" card.

But the biggest thing wrong with it is that it makes for a lousy storytelling experience if you know from the dawn of time how it's going to come out. If God likes a good story, then don't you suppose God likes to be surprised now and then?

Don't you suppose God would have been just as happy if Jesus were not crucified. Every person in that intricate bureaucracy we hear about - the Sanhedrin, Pilate, Herod - had a choice. Any one of them could have said, "Wait a minute. This guy hasn't done anything worth crucifying him for." Either Pilate or Herod could have released Jesus.

The point of the story for me is not the crucifixion, but the mystery we know as Easter. I can't say for a fact that a man was raised from the dead. I wasn't there, and I don't know. What I do know is that something incredible must have happened to make people react as they did. Although the religious authorities hunted them down and crucified them, they still followed Jesus. Even though Nero sent them to the lions, they still followed Jesus. You don't suffer those sorts of hardships on a whim, or for a mere philosophy.

You suffer those sort of hardships because you have experienced something life-changing. Some had this experience through knowing Jesus during his earthly ministry. Others had this experience as they came to know the community who called themselves Christians.

The point of the story for me is the positive changes in people's lives that resulted from this profoundly negative event. It is still possible for lives to be changed today.