Orville Taylor | It is Resurrection Sunday

“Take your ass out of the hole on the Sabbath!” Well, he did not quite say it like that, but around 2,000 years ago, a ‘son’ of a woodworker, a tekt õ n himself, faced the wrath of the half -souled men of cloth, who were more interested in maintaining a status quo, than bringing the flock closer to God.

Jesus actually asked a rhetorical question in Luke 14:15 and, there is some confusion. Growing up with the King James version of the Bible, the passage read that he asked whether any of the crowd would rescue their donkey or ox, if it fell into a well. Other variations of the good book, such as the New International Version (NIV) speak of one’s son and ox. How King James’ translators mixed up a little boy and an ass, is beyond me. However, given the historical stories or his ‘andropathy’, him getting it twisted would not be surprising, over this rarity.

Each year that Easter is celebrated, there are all types of ambiguities regarding how to commemorate this most important period.

For all the teachings of the Catholic priests at St George’s College, and the bible-thumping of Elder Taylor, whose index finger often reminded my temple of the need to open both brain and heart, it is mind boggling that most self-defined Christians hesitate when asked which is the most important event in Christendom and which story in the Bible is the single most significant.

One would be amazed how many wrongly guess ‘Christmas’, when asked to rank the number one religious holiday. Indeed, the birth of Jesus marks the beginning of a new chapter in mankind’s history, even from a secular perspective. Some stupid revisionists have moved away from ‘AD’, and use ‘CE’, which is still based on the Gregorian calendar, which uses the birth of Jesus as its axis.

Anyway, as important as his birthday is, it is not what guarantees salvation for believers. Moreover, it is not even his death, where they tortured, mocked and then unceremoniously nailed him unto a plus sign.

REAL POINT

As big an event as this is, the real point of salvation was that moment on the first Easter Sunday when Jesus, having been dead for the weekend, rose and walked out of the tomb, making his first appearance to Mary Magdalene, a woman some denominations have defamed as a harlot.

That the resurrection is treated so skimpily by practising Christians is one thing. Yet, it always strikes me very strange, that in countries where it evolved naturally, the flesh festival, carnival comes before Easter when the ultimate expungement of sins and purification of the soul occurs. We in Jamaica decide to refill the sin cup immediately after. This is akin to taking a shower to go play in the mud, in white clothes.

But then again, why should secular people take Easter Sunday seriously, when even the Bible writers seem not to agree on the facts and sequence of the resurrection. Indeed, some believers and pastors say that the Bible never contradict itself, because it is the unadulterated word of God,

Truth is often inconvenient. And if four writers, who clearly were not there as eyewitnesses, differ in their accounts, it does not necessarily mean that the incident did not take place. Neither Matthew, Mark, Luke, nor John was present when Jesus rose up. It is unknown who might have told them; but at least two of the four accounts clash with each other. Pastors and Christians do not have to put their brain or consciences in sleep mode to acknowledge this.

MARY MAGDALENE

Mark 16:1-8 describes Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome discovering the empty tomb. They met one man in a white robe, who told them that Jesus had risen. A clumsy fitting Verse 9 appears to reprise and even contradict Verse 16. “When Jesus rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had driven seven demons”.

At least, the writer did not disagree that Magdalene first saw him. However, verse 9 suggests that she was there alone, and at best seems redundant.

Matthew’s version in chapter 28 has more details than Mark, but it leaves out the very important fact that Salome was there as well. And like Matthew, they were told to go and tell the disciples. Luke adds another man/Angel as well as and Joanna, along with Mary the mother of James, ostensibly the same mother of Jesus, but he also adds “others with them”.

Well, John must have spoken to a discrete set of persons; but his version is very different. Only Magdalene is mentioned and finding the empty tomb, she ran to Simon Peter and another disciple, lamenting that the body was stolen.

After entering the empty tomb, the disciples left. Magdalene remained crying inside the tomb and while being reproached by the two angels, Jesus appeared and spoke to her. In Mark and Luke, Jesus met the disciples on the road to Emmaus, after they were told by Magdalene and clearly before he appeared to her. However, Matthew and John are very clear. The former said Jesus met both Marys en route to Galilee. The latter said Jesus appeared to Magdalene inside the tomb.

Even spin doctors, who work with politicians, cannot reconcile such contradictions. Be not mistaken! The assertion is not that the resurrection did not occur. The point is, the doctrine of the infallibility of the scriptures, being the absolute unabridged word of God, is not supported by any writing anywhere, and for that reason, those who build faith or arguments on this assertion have great difficulty not looking daft to people who use all of their brain in their active years, rather than saving some for use later in life.

Nevertheless, having myself experienced personal COVID-19 resurrection four years ago, I say blessed Resurrection Sunday, and celebrate the right thing.

Dr Orville Taylor is senior lecturer at the Department of Sociology at The University of the West Indies, a radio talk-show host, and author of ‘Broken Promises, Hearts and Pockets’. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and tayloronblackline@hotmail.com.