Rev. Valson Thampu

Why do you think Good Friday is important for Christians? Do you think there is a tragic dimension in the life of Christ? If so what does it mean for a Christian in the world?
A faith tradition has at least three parts: beliefs and practices received from the past, a faith community, and the individuals who comprise the community. The tradition is illumined by certain crowning moments. The events that comprise Good Friday are one such. How such events impact the community and individual believers should be a matter alike of interest and attention.

Is there a touch of the tragic about Good Friday? Soren Kierkegaard believed otherwise. Crucifixion, he said, was the funny spectacle of the mortals trying to kill the Immortal. What is immortal cannot die; much less be killed. Those nailing Jesus on the Cross are, in contrast, doomed to die. It’s only a matter of time. Jesus is the light of life. No man has any authority over that light. So, this is not an instance of tragedy; for tragedy cannot accommodate the miracle of Resurrection. No play at the end of which the slain hero comes back to life is tragic. A tragedy of that kind does not exist in world literature.

What does the suffering of Jesus mean for us? Well, first and foremost, it means that suffering is an integral part of life. Also, suffering is not an evil to be avoided but a challenge to be faced and overcome in faith.

Secondly, there are two parts to everything human: the visible and the invisible; or the human and the divine. What we see most of the time is the human. So, we see Jesus being caught under the authority of Rome, tortured and killed. But, at the same time, something far more significant, and timeless, is being fulfilled on a higher plane: God’s merciful plan for the regeneration of humankind. Faith is the eye that enables us to see both planes in conjunction.

W.G.F. Hegel saw history as a domain in which the Spirit progressively reveals itself. God responds, he said, to nature as light; to history as Spirit. Yet History is also a domain of perversions and cruelties, atrocities and injustices. So, Hegel evolved the idea of “cunning of Reason.” God allows free-play to human will, no matter how perverse it is, but, unknown to all human players in history, He harnesses all that man does to the fulfilment of His own plan. The Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus are a good illustration of Hegel’s idea (Lectures on the Philosophy of History).

Third, God suffering for us unto death is a statement of the incalculable worth he ascribes to us. Jesus’ dying on the Cross would have been a waste, if it weren’t to ransom humankind from its slavery to sin and death. At the core of spirituality is the supreme worth of humankind. In all man-made systems, though, this worth is under attack. Murder is man’s statement on the final worthlessness of his fellow men.

Jesus, though He suffers and dies, does not belong to the tragic mould. A tragic hero suffers because of a flaw in his character. Because a tragic hero suffers for his fault(s), his suffering has significance only for himself. So, when the plot ends, there is closure to the death of the hero. Not so with the death of Jesus. It inaugurates a new and profound beginning! A new world takes birth. And a new destiny for humankind.

Does faith in Resurrection erase the tragic dimension of life; if not what does Resurrection tell us the believers?
Crucifixion and Resurrection are two arms of the same event. Crucifixion is what man does to man. Resurrection is what God does with the debris of this human action. In one sense Resurrection is a one-off event. In another sense, it is a continuing process. Man continues to kill and to maim. God continues to bind the wounds and to revive life. And kindles hope amidst hopelessness.

Resurrection does not interfere with the existing scheme of things. For example, the Resurrection of Jesus did not result in the overthrow of Caesar in Rome or Caiaphas in Jerusalem. God does not introduce arbitrariness into history. He respects man’s freedom of choice and action. Yet, something changes very radically. Man’s authority over man now stands judged. To me this is the supreme message of hope that Resurrection offers. Yes, we will be oppressed. Yes, we will continue to face a world of cruelty and the injustices it manufactures. But Resurrection delivers us from the need to fear them.

Resurrection breaks the seal of Caesar’s authority, and puts the seal of God’s authority, on our faith. That faith is in the ultimate authority of God over all that there is in this world and over death itself. But faith is not magic. So, we will not have an easy passage through life. Yet will not walk alone along this pilgrim path of life. This sustains us in the valley of the shadow of death.

Of course there is a political side to Resurrection! The contrast on which the Resurrection event is structured comprises the authority of Rome and the authority of God. It is power versus love. The Empire of power, insecure at all times, asserts itself desperately over the Empire of Love. What will prevail? Napoleon said, “Alexander the Great, Charlemagne and myself…. We built great empires. But the days of our empires are numbered. The Empire of Jesus will endure; for it is an Empire of Love.”

The greatest reassurance that Resurrection offers to a believer is that God will not let what is valuable –one’s personal worth- to be vandalized by man. So, how can I defend myself best? It is by protecting the worth that God has invested in me. That worth is an inner thing. It is the treasure that endures into eternity. Rome and Judaism did all they could, to despoil the personal worth of Jesus; but in so far as He kept Himself pure in the plan of God, even death could not keep him back. Resurrection proves that purity is power.

Christians enact the memorial of the Lord who told us “to do this in memory of me” in the Eucharist, how does the Eucharist connect the bread and the divine life, the world of socio-political life with spirituality?
Jesus turned His Passion into a sacrament of memory. The purpose of sacrament is to bring out the best in us that, otherwise, remains latent in human beings. How does this work? Sacrament sanctifies or purifies. Purity, as seen above, is empowerment. Purity is the foundation for the Passion and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Forgetfulness is a form of impurity. Proof? We have no difficulty in remembering the impure of every description. It is godly things that we forget. As students, our memory improved when we kept our minds clean.

Jesus uses bread and wine as elements of remembrance. Bread and wine are of this world. The brilliant thing Jesus does is to connect them forever with His body and blood. Spirituality is universal. There is, hence, no discontinuity between the godly and the worldly. On the human plane too, bread and body are interconnected. Wine and blood, likewise. Whichever way we look at this aspect of biblical spirituality, the conclusion is inevitable that God’s love cannot be withheld from the world. “God so loved the world…” (Jn. 3:16). Jesus is the embodiment of that love for the whole world. “My father’s house,” He proclaimed as He cleansed the Temple, “is a house of prayer for all nations…” Escapism is alien to spirituality.

But getting mixed up with politics, as politics is played today, is not spiritual. Can the Christian community in India prayfully work towards the Resurrection of a humane model of politics? Can we nurture leaders who, like Jesus, will “lay down His life for the flock” rather than sell then and send the money to overseas tax havens?

Can we nurture men and women of faith who will “obey God rather than men,” stick to their God-appointed callings, so that “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven’?
Jesus has already provided the key to this. “Man does not live by bread alone; but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” (Math. 4:4). Living by bread alone, we become less than human. We shrink in stature; dwindle in significance. Sadly, the Christian community has succumbed to the dominant consumerist culture whose dogmatic creed is, “Man lives by bread alone.” To such, I am afraid, Resurrection cannot make much sense.