Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 69

Since many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the events that have been fulfilled among us, just as those who were eyewitnesses from the beginning and ministers of the word have handed them down to us, I too have decided,
after investigating everything accurately anew, to write it down in an orderly sequence for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may realize the certainty of the teachings you have received.

Some time ago I read an essay by a Buddhist or Hindu sage in the Times of India. (How I got there I have no idea.) The author argued that the world's religions could get along much better, and we could readily find common agreements, if the west would only give up its fixation on the first century mideast.

Thomas Jefferson would have agreed wholeheartedly. He had no use for the miracles of the Bible. In his own edition of the new and old testaments, he cut out everything that didn't sound reasonable by his logic. His Christian religion was a a collection of adages, proverbs and helpful hints without anchorage in any historical event or geographical place. So far as that Founding Father was concerned, Jesus was a wise man by the standards of his time, and should take his place among the great philosophers of the ancient past, men like Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and Marcus Aurelius.

Saint Luke expressly disagrees with those teachings. That's not how the Spirit works. He intentionally anchors the Gospel in a very specific time and place. We can well imagine the hearers of this gospel recalling where they were and what they were doing "at that time;" specifically,

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas...

Though his chronology is difficult for us to place in our calendar because we have lost whatever records the Romans kept of that time and place, there is no question that a very specific person named Jesus, the son of Mary of Nazareth and Joseph of Bethlehem, lived, died and was raised up on the third day.

Without that fact, Christianity would be utter nonsense, as the Athenians suggested to Saint Paul when he told them about Jesus' rising from the dead.

When they heard about resurrection of the dead, some began to scoff, but others said, “We should like to hear you on this some other time.”

The Evangelists were well aware of myths, the stories that might begin "Once upon a time in a galaxy far, far away...." Myths have their usefulness in any religion but Jesus is not a myth. This actually happened in the too familiar city of Jerusalem in present-day Israel, with its endless history of troubles.

If it didn't then we are not saved. Perhaps our "souls" would be saved but a myth cannot raise our bodies from the dead. If someone sold you the Brooklyn Bridge you might shell out a lot of money and you might have an embossed deed to show for it -- but you wouldn't own the bridge.

Likewise, if Jesus did not live and die and rise up somewhere during the first half of the first century, our faith, hope and love are utterly meaningless. As Saint Paul wrote:

And if Christ has not been raised, then empty [too] is our preaching; empty, too, your faith. (1 Corinthians 15: 14)

Many people of our time have chosen to disbelieve in Jesus. They intend to make a meaningful life out of whatever shreds of religion they can piece together. Good luck to them!

But we who have been called to believe in Jesus Christ live in the confidence that his life is infinitely more important than that of Socrates or Plato, Caesar Augustus or George Washington. We find joy and satisfaction and courage in the Spirit which The Father bestows on those who believe in his name.