Easter Sunday

It is said that on the evening of June 18, 1815 a man stood in the tower of England’s Winchester Cathedral gazing anxiously out to sea. At last he found what he was looking for – a ship sending a signal by use of lights. He strained to see the message. All of England held its breath with him, wanting to know the outcome of the war between their military leader, the Duke of Wellington, and the French dictator Napoleon Bonaparte. Bonaparte, who had once ruled all of Europe bar England remained a threat, and now the decisive Battle of Waterloo had been fought. As he stood in the tower of Winchester Cathedral our man waited to relay the news that would determine England’s future. The signal came just as a heavy fog was rolling in. It only just got through, but how he wished it hadn’t, for the signal read: “Wellington defeated.”

The man signalled to other stations and the news spread across the countryside, bringing great gloom and sadness. A few hours later, the fog lifted, and the message was sent again, this time in full: “Wellington defeated the enemy.” England’s sadness was turned into jubilation. This story is a good way of understanding our lives from the perspective of how the apostles must have felt in between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. I think that often we end up trapped between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. It was only three days that the apostles had to endure of doom and gloom, but to us I think it can often seem much longer. We don’t realize that we have got only half of the message, we do not have the broadness of vision to see beyond the fog that is clouding out the other half of the message.

There is a proverb in Shona that says nyamunatsi ndiye nyakutsvirwa nemba – literally meaning that it is the person who is generous who gets his house burnt down. This proverb speaks to the fact that if you are a forgiving, generous and accommodating person, people will normally walk all over you like a door mat. This proverb and those who believe it are like the inhabitants of England who were downcast and gloomy having only received half the message and taken it for the full message.

In Franco Zefferelli’s mini-series Jesus of Nazareth, gives us an intriguing portrayal of the character of Judas as a member of an internal Jewish group known as the Zealots. We have Judas coming to Jesus with some of his Zealot confreres and trying to persuade him to join forces with them and lead them into battle against the Romans. They can scarcely believe their ears when Jesus starts extolling the virtues of loving one’s enemies and forgiving those who persecute you. They walk away disgusted, and if they knew this Shona proverb, they probably would have quoted it. As they watched Jesus die on the cross, they probably would have been saying to each other – we told him so. And for all we know they went to their own graves thinking that they were right. I think that we all know people like this, people who walk through dousing the flames of hope in others through their cynicism. There are no end of real-world events that they can point to in order to prove their pessimistic view of human nature. The tragedy is that they are walking around spreading doom and gloom and robbing people of their joy and hope because they have only received half of the message.

We, who have received the full message know in our heart of hearts that they are wrong. We know that Jesus was raised from the dead by his Father to show that forgiveness and love is the only sustainable way to respond to hate. Notice that Jesus only appears to those who have faith in him. He doesn’t go to the Zealots and appear to them, and say to them: “Ha! I proved you wrong!” Because the resurrection is a ministry of Jesus and not a spectacle. Some people like to think of the resurrection as the greatest miracle that Jesus performed in order to get people to believe in him. If this was so – Jesus would have appeared to all those who were sitting on the fence, or to those who were positively against him to change their minds about him. Instead, Jesus only appears to those who were closest to him, to give them hope and tell them that they were not wrong to trust in him. The resurrection is all about a ministry of hope to those in the depths of despair. The resurrection shows us that we are not wasting our time and effort by being loving and forgiving, because even if our house is burnt down, God will build us a new house, even better than the one we had before. Questions for reflection

1. Have there been instances in my life where I have quoted this proverb, or the sentiments expressed therein to someone who I have thought was too naïve? Have I doused the fire of the resurrection in someone else’s life through my cynicism?
2. Are there any examples I can think of in my life that prove this proverb wrong? Have I seen generosity and forgiveness returned in kind?
3. To whom am I called to be a minister of hope in the midst of their despair? How might I show people that they have only received half of the message?