Easter: Does it Add Up?

I recently saw the following post on facebook:

‘Add the Numbers:

Nineteen minus five + 4 – 3 x 2 + 7

Solve this….’

Most people make the mistake of ignoring the initial instruction to ADD the numbers; instead they perform the calculation.  The host website states that the right answer is 16 (adding together 4, 3, 2 and 7). This, however, is open to challenge: have the hosts confused the word ‘numbers’ with the words ‘figures’ or ‘digits?  ‘Nineteen’ and ‘five’ are still numbers even if they are written as words rather than expressed as figures.  The correct answer might, therefore, be 40 (or forty).

What has this to do with Easter?  I have spent a lot of time recently discussing with individuals and groups whether the resurrection of Jesus ought to be understood ’physically’, ‘spiritually’ or ‘symbolically’.  The answer to this depends largely on how we read the source material of the New Testament.  For example, ought we to read the Gospels as history understood in essentially modern terms, as history understood primarily in ancient terms, as examples of ancient writings known as ‘lives’ (a type of ‘dramatised’ biography or docudrama) or as documents that primarily contain material designed to portray the significance of Jesus even though some biographical details might also be present?

Enough books to fill a good-sized library have been written in attempts to ‘prove’ each of the above positions (and others).  Such arguments are important; seeking the truth is always to be commended especially when the truth is hotly disputed. 

What is missing, however, in much of what is written about the resurrection is attention being given to the equivalent of the initial instruction in the teaser above.  The point of the resurrection narratives, according to John’s Gospel, is to encourage people to believe in Jesus so that their own lives might also be transformed.  In the final analysis, it doesn’t matter so much how the resurrection happened; what matters is that Jesus continues to live in a transformed manner.  The nature of that transformation is a matter of debate and long may the debate continue; the point of the transformation is that we might find someone worthy of following, someone ‘we can believe in’.

The form of that belief and the ways in which we might follow Jesus will also vary from person to person.  My conviction is that once we get to the point of believing that Jesus is truly worth following we are in for a life-time of exploration, development and challenge.  At a personal level, Easter is not so much about theories and doctrines as it is about a particularly striking person and the continuing impact he can have in my life.  If the resurrection doesn’t make a difference in me what does it really matter to me?