The Particularity of the Resurrection

A week ago, we were mourning the horrors of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, God incarnate.

Now, a week later, we are celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ, God incarnate - full human and fully divine.

The shocking, wonderful reality which we proclaim as followers of Jesus is that in Christ humanity was brought into the unfettered, unimaginable, presence of the Divine.

An aspect of what we proclaim on Easter Sunday - that a Palestinian born, human male, was born a little over two-thousand years ago - is something some theologians call the scandal of particularity.

That God, at a particular time and in a particular place appeared to a particular people in a particular way and did a particular thing. The “Scandal of Particularity” often also references how God covenants with a people (the Israelites) to be a sign and symbol for the world.

And this is made all the more clear in Jesus Christ - wherein the transcdent, infine, immortal and infinite God takes on the particularities of human being-ness.

We are full of particularities.

But one thing that we are joyful about is that in the resurrection, we bear witness to the fact that God’s love does not erase our particularities - but rather unites them into a whole; a diverse whole united into the body of Christ which is His Church on Earth, as Christ is now ascendant and in Heaven.

One aspect of the wonder of Easter joy is the fact that Jesus destroys the stronghold of death and invites humanity into immortality. This is the wonder and goodness of God acting in a particular place at a particular time for all places and all time.

What a wonder it is, then, to rejoice in the great power of WHAT GOD has done for us in Jesus Christ.

A most joyful and blessed Eastertide to you all!

Amen!