. . . I will raise it again in three days !
The reference in the fourth gospel to the destruction of the temple, the assertion of Jesus that he could rebuild in three days the temple which took 46 years to build, and the Johanine comment that Jesus meant the building of his body which was remembered by his disciples after his resurrection (John.2: 18-22), all have immense potential to having a paradigmatic predisposition to understand resurrection-faith as that of recognising Jesus alive only in, and not apart from, the existence of communities of faith and hope.
That the author of the fourth gospel should connect the rebuilding of the temple to that of Jesus having been raised can lead one to understand the resurrection of Jesus as being visualized as and in the living communities of faith and hope – those communities that till date are alive to the faith that grave shall no longer conquer life. Recognizing and nurturing such communities of faith and hope understood as Jesus Alive thus become an anti-thesis to consumerisation of citizenship, to empire-building in establishment, and to homogenization for subjugating sovereignty of peoples of the world. It calls for investing in Peoples and her organizations vis-à-vis investing for private profit and its institutions and agents.
That such an actualization of resurrection-faith in the building of the body (of the faithful) is construed to be done in three days – the sixth, seventh and the first days of the week – lend to significant elements of recognising and nurturing live-communities of faith and hope:
- Tearing down of the veil on the day of crucifixion defies the call to submit to the mammon of an ethnic and eccentric hegemony of the temple; contrarily it affirms the fearless, eclectic and electrifying ecumenism in which the ‘sacred’ tears through that which is perceived as ‘sacrilegious’, attributing a sanctity to all who would believe and engage in the mission of Jesus – that of asserting the sovereignty of the least.
- Defining Sabbath, sandwiched between crucifixion and resurrection, as intrinsic to the understanding of resurrection as a recognition and nurturing of live-communities of faith and hope, hitherto unexplored, would lead to affirmation of rest-economy (sabbatical) as the foundation of a sound and sustainable oikonomos(oikonomos) defying a self-defeating and self-consuming economy that is based on and directed by a restive-market
- Presenting as the resurrected one in the wee hours of the first day of the week mandates discovering the power of presence of the resurrected amidst those that seek to venture out into the open breaking the shackles of fear of being exterminated from the face of the earth – Mary, Thomas, and the disciples on the way to Emmaus.
Live-communities of faith and hope are therefore a sacramental and real presence of the Jesus professed to have been raised from the dead, and building such communities of faith and hope as alternate proto-types of a life-affirming economy is proclamation of the power of God that raised Jesus from the dead.
On behalf of the secretariat of the National Council of Churches in India, we invite you to a meaningful observance and recapitulation of the resurrection of Jesus – on Easter day this year and all through the days leading to the feast of the Pentecost; the Pentecost in which the Jesus movement gained steam and determination. Thus energized and determined we will break the seals of power - rendering peoples, groups, communities, and their movements, powerful with the power that would shine them forth as Jesus alive.
Rev. Asir Ebenezer
Officiating General Secretary, NCC India |
