With the first ever Easter that followed the tragedy of Good Friday when an innocent itinerant Prophet Jesus of Nazareth was condemned to death by crucifixion, we see the dawn of a glimmer of Hope on a world that constantly experiences injustice, betrayal, ingratitude, violence in its many forms, death, pain and despair.
Jesus of Nazareth had defied the power of death and vanquished the gloom of the grave. He is Risen in radiant light and glory bringing peace, courage, joy and hope to the otherwise bewildered and stunned disciples who had followed him leaving all things but deserted him in his darkest of hours.
The death of any loved one inflicts sorrow and pain on all those who would have been dear and near to him. So it was with the disciples of Jesus, their guru, prophet, healer and exorcist who was done away with religious, political and state leadership conspiring together in the meanest and the most hypocritical travesty of justice in legal history, to condemn him to death by crucifixion.
With the Risen Jesus keeping company of his once frightened disciples enjoying once again joyful meals, blessing their toil out at sea with a miraculous draught of fish and making himself a co-sojourner on their travels, hope and joy once gain returned to their otherwise deflated lives.
This was their master who wept over the historic city of Jerusalem in the heart of Judea and the far distant northern fishing villages of Corozain and Bethsaida as well as his own home-town of Capernaum for their want of faith and despicable indifference. He had spewed woes at the hypocritical Pharisees.
The Resurrection empowered the disciples with new leadership and zeal and we see them going public and challenging people to repentance, change of heart and a new way of life.
With the Light and power of the Risen Christ begins a new era of faith and missionary zeal that took the teachings and the story of Jesus of Nazareth beyond the confines of Jerusalem and the Palestinian provinces reaching out to all major cosmopolitan centres like Athens and Corinth, Ephesus and Colossae and Thessalonica and even penetrate Rome, the imperial seat of the power of the mighty Caesars of the time. Jesus, the once historical marginal Jew by now has become the Eternal Galilean.
Easter heralds transformation
Easter though a typical religious festival and a Christian one at that, however, carries a social message too as every authentic religious tradition does. A religion that has no impact on society, culture, history and civilisation cannot be a catalyst of social transformation. The spiritual dimension has to be discerned in the material and human concerns that we are called to struggle with.
The impact of the Easter event brought new light and a clearer insight into what Jesus of Nazareth, the son of a peasant family turned guru, Prophet and miracle-worker performed and achieved during his three-year or so itinerant activities throughout his homeland of Palestine. He crisscrossed entire regions of this country interacting with his fellow-Jews, the hybrid-Samaritans and the Greek-speaking Jews who were exposed to Greek culture. People spoke a variety of languages: Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. The country was a colony under Imperial Rome and people were subject to taxation that filled the coffers of Rome. The so-called toll-collectors who were mostly publicans were hated for squandering the national assets.
Message of liberation
Every now and again there were armed rebellions of zealots that were summarily crushed by the imperial fist of the Herods and provincial governors of whom Pontius Pilate is well known. A people crushed under colonial subjection by the Caesars of Rome were eagerly longing for the appearance of a Messiah who would bring them freedom and liberation as their great Prophets had declared. It is in the background of these historical, religious, political, cultural and social scenario that Jesus of Nazareth appeared but with a message of liberation of an entirely different kind which He called the Kingdom of God, where the faith of the people, the cult of the temple, the leadership of those in higher echelons needed to take on a different meaning.
The clarion call of Jesus of Nazareth to his people was for a change of heart or a radical conversion. “The Kingdom of God is at hand” he said “Repent and believe in the Gospel”. His call echoed the cry of John the Baptist in the wilderness: “Repent and be washed off your sins in the waters of the Jordan River.”
He had a message not only for the ordinary people but also for those in leadership and even soldiers and the tax collectors. In these teachings naturally, matters of social justice too were involved. Corruption and abuse of authority were clearly condemned. If the face of the social fabric were to be changed, there will inevitably be the need of a radical transformation: indeed a structural revolution into a new national fabric featuring human dignity, truth and justice and social cohesion.
All these would eventually purify religion as well, with its dogmas, rituals and moral codes. There will be a call for inner religion of spiritual values that will assist the needed social reform.
Easter means to rise with courage capable of facing up to truth, justice and human dignity. The value and dignity of life is the resounding echo of Easter.
He who vanquished death and rose to a new life presents a new paradigm for understanding, defending and fostering the precious gift of life both in individuals and in the social collective. If a given society has fallen into clear decadence and is incapacitated, a radical change and transformation proves the surest path to gain what was lost and to continue on a new journey of idealism and prosperity. The Light of Easter shines at the end of the tunnel of failure and gloom of human falsities while shining brilliantly as a sure pledge and promise of Hope.
