EASTER MESSAGE
April 11, 2004
by
Bishop Dr. Munib A. Younan
The Lutheran Bishop in Jerusalem
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THE CULTURE OF THE RESURRECTION IS STRONGER
THAN THE CULTURE OF DEATH

Jesus said, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10)

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all forevermore. Amen.

My Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

CHRIST IS RISEN! HE IS RISEN INDEED!

During Easter it is customary in Jerusalem for Christians to greet one another in the streets with these words, reminding each other that Jesus rose from the dead after being crucified and entombed. But this year when I give and receive the greeting, I am asking myself, “Is this greeting coming from the depths of our hearts or is it a mere tradition?” We are celebrating Easter in fear and low spirits. It seems that in the Middle East we are stuck in our own Passion stories – in the suffering of peoples and nations. We echo the Psalmist when he laments,

The first Christians in Jerusalem molded their faith from the Resurrection. In the New Testament and the history of the writing of the New Testament, we always see that the gospels and the epistles are centered upon the Resurrection of our Lord. Even the gospels themselves were written after Christ rose from the dead and from the perspective of the Resurrection. Through the centuries Christians in Jerusalem have carried the banner of Resurrection. Their faith was the faith of the Resurrection. It starts from the empty tomb:

“THE LORD IS RISEN! He is not here!” (Matt. 28:6)

This is because the crucifixion would have meant nothing without the Resurrection. And, of course, without Christ’s crucifixion and death there would have been no need for the Resurrection. The Resurrection is the center of our faith. This is why St. Paul writes in his first letter to the Corinthians,

In our struggle for justice and peace in this broken world, I often wonder if we Christians today really trust in the Resurrection. I wonder if the Resurrection has the same meaning for us as it had for early Christians, guiding our faith. And here is the challenge to us Christians today: Does the Resurrection have meaning in life? Do we really concentrate our faith in Christ’s Resurrection? Do we see that if Jesus did not rise then our faith is futile? It sometimes seems to me that even in the midst of a congregation the way of Resurrection has lost its meaning. For this reason, we need to pray to God to revive our faith with a new spirituality of the Resurrection. Such a spirituality does not move from triumphalism but such a faith focuses on the cross and Resurrection and revives the life in the Spirit in our lives and congregations.

Sometimes I ask myself, “Have we forgotten the centrality of the Resurrection in our everyday lives?” The Culture of Death seems to be stronger than the Culture of Resurrection in our societies and in the world. Whenever we turn on our TVs or read our newspapers or internet news or our electronic mail, we are confronted with fighting, bloodshed, oppression, fear, hatred, stigmatization and war. If people kill and fight or have every human tragedy, it hits the headlines. But if they build life and work for reconciliation, it is not a matter of interest or concern. It seems few are interested in life and Resurrection. This situation is very real to us because the Palestinian and Israeli peoples live in the midst of the Culture of Death. Every day in the last years we have experienced demolitions, killings, assassinations or spiral violence. Every day we are witnessing funeral after funeral. All of this feeds into more hatred, bitterness, retaliation and despair. It is as if the Middle East has succumbed to the Culture of Death and death has its word. Death has more to say than the Culture of Resurrection. What is happening in the Middle East is just a microcosm of the big world. For this reason we are challenged by the words of Christ: “I am the Resurrection and the Life.” (John 11:25)

We are haunted and obsessed by the Culture of Death, by terrorism, spiral violence and bitter conflicts in Iraq, Spain, Nigeria, Haiti, the United States, Rwanda, Palestine, Israel and so many others. Our obsession may be understandable because of the horrendous acts we have observed and experienced. But at the same time this Culture of Death must not possess humanity so that our faith in the Resurrection is obscured. It is our centrality in the Culture of Resurrection that gives hope. It gives the living words of Jesus to every person who is mourning, in despair, in difficulties and in fear. It proclaims that Jesus came to give us life, and life abundantly. I am not talking about a luxurious life style when I speak of life abundant. Jesus was telling us that every person has the right for life, to enjoy it, to live in dignity and not exist in fear and oppression. The new, abundant life from Jesus is confirmed by his Resurrection from the dead. The Culture of Resurrection must be the center of our faith in our world and shine into every part of our lives. We Christians, wherever we are, must be a living witness for the power of Resurrection and for the abundant life for every human being.

Sometimes I am asked: “Is there any hope left for us in our daily life?” My answer is that as long as there is a living God who rose from the dead, I am full of hope. My Lord and Savior is not dead – He is alive! We must put our trust in the centrality of Christ’s Resurrection just as Martha did when Jesus asked her if she believed that everyone who lives and believes in him will never die. “Yes, Lord, I believe you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world,” Martha answered in great faith. (John 11:27) We need to have the faith of Martha, even amidst the Culture of Death. The church still has the duty and call to imbue the Culture of Resurrection in our people with hope and life. In our difficult human and political situation the church is always called to be the witness of Christ’s Resurrection and does not believe in the Culture of Death.

We are living in times of crisis and are being hurt by so much bloodshed in our country, by the Separation Wall, by demolished houses and broken lives. One is asked, “Has hope ended? Have all peace initiatives ended?” We forget that in the midst of our suffering and oppression it is only the power of the Resurrection that can enable the living church in Palestine together with our partner churches to give hope in a hopeless situation, to assure people of life and life abundant. It is from the place of Christ’s Resurrection that we are calling the whole world to see and accept the humanity of the other, to see the Living God in the other, not only in ourselves. Then people will see and accept that the other has the right to equal opportunities of life – not that one side will live and the other side will die. In our country we want to give a fresh meaning to life – so fresh that the Resurrection of Christ is reflected in the Holy Land.

This is why the Christian church in Palestine continues to call for peace and reconciliation, not from a viewpoint of power, but from the Resurrection point of view. We want to give equal hope and equal opportunity and an equal future to all Palestinians and Israelis. Therefore we continue to believe the two-state solution is the only viable answer in our difficult times. The Christian church is saying that this suffering, crisis and tribulation will not end in death, mourning and a tomb. It will end with the dawning of the hope in the Risen Christ. Whoever believes in the Risen Christ will rise with him and will experience the power of Resurrection. This will happen sooner than we think and this is the message that we Christians must carry. Even in the peak of the Culture of Death that is promoting hatred, bitterness, retaliation and depression, the Christian church carries the message of Resurrection. When we are separated and divided, even when we create crises among cultures, we carry the message of understanding and love. Even if some people are trying to create war among religions, we continue to believe that dialogue among religions will lead to finding the values that build justice, peace and reconciliation in all religions. We carry the Resurrection message when xenophobia, racism, Islamaphobia, Arabaphobia, anti-Semitism and Americanaphobia are haunting the souls in our world. We carry it when double standards are used in our world in regard to North and South relations, or to East and West relations. The power of Resurrection calls us to repent of all these sins, of not seeing the humanity of the other, of the stranger, the different, the marginalized and the powerless people. Because God has forgiven us through Christ’s death on the cross, we accompany each other as Christians with the Resurrection power and together share our faith in the Risen Christ with the world. The spirit of the Resurrection is the only way to save our world that is falling and collapsing because it has lost itself in power, injustice and the violation of human rights. It is the only power that can heal our broken world and can assure us of Jesus’ words: “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”

Perhaps some will think my words are too theological or utopian. Where are the concrete, tangible signs of hope? Certainly we cannot deny the reality of death all around us, but as Christians we are informed and sustained by the Culture of Resurrection. We must remember the three long days and two long nights that Jesus spent in the tomb, when it seemed there was no hope. But the dawn of the Resurrection came unexpectedly, unpredictably. When there are cracks in a clay jar it seems there is no hope, but we find that new, green life is unexpectedly growing out of the cracks. It was the same with South Africa. No one believed the apartheid system would end one day. The powers of racism and of oppression were well-established. But the dawn of the South African Resurrection came unexpectedly. So did the fall of the Berlin Wall. This will also be true in Palestine and Israel. We are living now in the heavy darkness of Friday and the entombment of Saturday when we see no hope, when our situation is declared a hopeless case.

With what may be my simplicity and naivety, I believe the Resurrection that occurred in my country two thousand years ago will come about much sooner in our lives than human beings imagine, than political powers plan. The Culture of Resurrection is the only hope we Christians hold in the Middle East and in this globalized world. We must continue . . .

We must continue to preach our message of Resurrection because as Christians molded by the Culture of Resurrection we know very well that Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, and that we, too, are enfolded in the very real hope of abundant, resurrected life in Christ, in our todays and all our tomorrows.

This spirituality of the Resurrection is the only Spirit that revives the Christian church in the Holy Land and the whole world. We are revived with hope that is real and we remember that we may come to Christ with all our sins, difficulties, worries and concerns and be assured of forgiveness and a new life. We are also assured that we are messengers of life emerging from the Resurrection. It is our duty and call to continue to witness to our Resurrection faith for ourselves, for our world today and for our future generations. And as we share the same faith of Resurrection, we become partners – partners in the witness of the Resurrection. We appeal to all who believe in life, all who believe in just peace and reconciliation, all who have a living conscience and people from all religions to join Palestinian Christians in promoting the Culture of Resurrection in the Middle East.

So let us join hands in our witness and cry in the face of the powerful world with the healing words:

May the peace of God that passes all understanding keep your minds and hearts in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen.