“He is not Here . . . He is Risen”: Are you Risen with Him?
Testimony or witnessing is what others do for you and not what you do for yourself. Witnesses need truth and honesty in their character to be credible. Every witness needs litigation or a tribunal where to testify. The veracity of a witness’s testimony needs the cross examination and verification of a litigant, an expert and a judge. In short, the evidence evinced and adduced by a witness needs a court scenario with all its constituent assembly of lawyers, judges, experts, accused, accusers and jury/jurors for evaluation and admissibility. At the end of the day, there are victors and vanquished, those happy and sad, decision makers and verdict pronouncers, there is a system in place for the process of adjudication to take place.
Make no mistake about it, I am neither a lawyer nor a law reporter, just a disciple of the Bible, the Christian sacred Scripture. I am just someone thinking about the meaning of “He is not here . . . He is Risen,” the message of the angel to the women on Easter Sunday. I question the credibility of the testimony of the women at the tomb because the testimony of women, among the Jews, in legal matters, could not stand in their law court. I challenge the veracity of the angel’s message because it was not based on facts and not corroborated by reality. “He is rising, he is not here,” does not prove much, does it? How can an “absence” be an argument of fact? If ‘he is not here,” he can be somewhere else; an alibi of absence or whereabouts does not necessarily follow that “he is risen”!
Oh yes, what kind of tribunal are we talking about here, and who are its constitutive members? A human tribunal? Most certainly Not. A court case? No way! Then, what we dealing with here? Our court is a “tomb,” our case is “faith,” and our accuser is “doubt.” Curious enough, you and I are the witnesses on the bases of whose testimony a judgment will be pronounced, a verdict declared and sentence laid down. “Curious” because you and I are both witnesses and jury – it all depends on what side of the tribunal we are sitting, we are all in court! Less I forget, the judge is invisible; in fact, it is the action of the judge himself that creates and conjures the court session. The accusation against him is that he is rising, but he is absent, he is invisible. What kind of court has no visible judge? Who will pronounce the verdict at the end of the court proceedings?
Now, the simple “alibi” of the angels is “he is not here” because “he is risen.” The empty tomb was sufficient proof that he was not there, but why take the testimony of the angels for it? Their testimony appears to have shifted the onus of prove to those who came to the tomb – “he is not here” simply means go find him somewhere else. We agree with you, the angels’ message implies, that he is not here, as you can see and bear witness; as for where he is, you need to find out and become witnesses to that. But come to think of it, “he is risen,” linguistically speaking, argues in favor of the crucifixion! In other words, the man, Jesus, who was lying down because he was killed, he is up and about again. The perceived end to a saga only ushered in a new saga, a sequel, we will say today: phase two of Jesus’ saga has begun!
I dear say that the drama of the Resurrection is playing out and must play out far away from the scenes of the tomb and Golgotha, the place of the Skull! The reason is simple: Jesus is neither hanging on the cross nor lying in a tomb. The statement of the angels, which will only stand as testimony only if it is corroborated, is “he is not here.” We need to find Jesus, by finding him, we can prove that he is not in the tomb. In fact, it was Friedrick Nietzsche who asserted that our empty churches are his tombs – empty churches! I dare say that “empty churches” are simply symptomatic of a deeper malaise – absences of witnesses to testify to the Resurrection. In fact, Nietzsche remained on the level of the tomb, “he is not here”; we must all go pass him, we need to go find where he is. As for Nietzsche, he took a lantern to the market place to look for Christians, premised on his search for an honest person, as testimony to the viability of Christianity! Tell Nietzsche that Christians are still being martyred in Nigeria, Egypt and Iraq!
You know what, your life, that is, your character, is the only prove of the resurrection! Truth, honesty and Life were crucified at Golgotha and buried in a tomb. The message of the Resurrection of Christ argues that life, honesty and truth are back on our streets, churches, politics and families. The argument of the angels is that Jesus walks among human beings, although he was put to death for our iniquities but he lives again in you and me. That to the degree that I am an honest, true and living person, to those degrees is Christ resurrected. I am the witness to the the resurrection of Christ, my life is the testimony that he is not in the grave; rather, wherever a life of virtue is found, there is Christ, there is the evidence of the resurrection.
“Are you risen with him” is a question that invites you and me to prove to the whole world that Jesus is still alive and active today. It is an invitation to prove to doubters like Nietzsche that no one needs a lantern before they can find an honest person, a Christian; rather, Christians, you and I, are “the light of the world and the salt of the earth.” That any light that needs kerosine or gas is not human, but mundane. Just as Nero made human torches to light the streets of Rome, so are the exemplary lives of Christians the light of the world and proofs of the resurrection of Christ. Indeed, “he is not Here [in the tomb]” because he lives in you and me, and he will never die, even if the last Christian is martyred, because he is immortal and shares his immortality with you and me. Yes, life is now lived beyond the confines of the tomb and far removed from the shame of Golgotha. Every Christian life is a proof of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, every life lived in virtue, honesty and truth!
The miracles of Jesus Christ, through several appearances to his disciples and friends, after his resurrection, proved where he was and that he was and still is alive. That every act of kindness in human beings, every courage mustard to tell the truth and stand up for justice, even in the face of persecution and martyrdom, are all testimonies to the reality of the resurrection. Honestly, you can doubt that the tomb is empty, you can contest whether Jesus died on the Cross or not, but you cannot context that you are reading this piece and that this piece did not write itself – welcome to the resurrection and life beyond the grave: you and I are alive, hurray!