Whether or not the cow really was there in the meadow was a philosophical question which undergraduates used to have to discuss as part of the study of the objective existence of anything outside ourselves (see the opening of E. M. Forster�s novel, �The Longest Journey�.) Does the cow exist only when there is someone to look at it or does it have an existence of its own? If the only thing we can be sure of is the thinking mind (�I think therefore I am�) how do we prove that anything is there when we are not thinking about it?
William Mearns plays upon this problem in his well known verse:
Yesterday upon the stair
I met a man who wasn�t there
He wasn�t there again today
Oh, how I wish he�d go away.
Who is this irritatingly absent person? What makes me think he�s there? Is he perhaps some aspect of myself which paradoxically makes itself known by its absence. Is it a part of myself I don�t like, or an unrealized part of myself? Such problems with reality and identity have filled the consulting rooms of the psychotherapists of the 20th century:
�The complaint he made all along was that he could not become a person. He had no self. �I am only a response to other people. I have no identity of my own.� �
�I realized my foster parents didn�t want me for myself but because they wanted a sister for their son.�
� I came away from childhood, not knowing I was loved for myself but only if I was a good boy.�
�I have always felt myself to be on the periphery of other people, not remembered when I�m not there, existing only if I can make myself interesting to myself.�
Another kind of absence can often be seen in the eyes of those who are being cruel, or violent, or dismissive of the existence or importance of other people. The victim looks into the eyes of his torturer and sees nothing there. Similarly those who feel guilty or ashamed can find it very hard to look you in the eye, for fear of your somehow seeing through them. It is as though a part of them isn�t there, as though sin reduces their humanity, the fullness of their personal identity.
We can sometimes detect this kind of absenteeism in the behaviour of the disciples. It is as though their minds are elsewhere, they fail to see or hear what Jesus is saying or doing. They have fixed ideas about the purpose and power of the Messiah and seem to be looking the other way whenever Jesus fails to match their idea. So it comes as a shock to them when reality breaks into the Garden of Gethsemane and they absent themselves � they have failed to be disciples.
So from this perspective we might say that the first thing the resurrection effects is a way forward to reality, to the true meaning of discipleship. It is as though the risen Christ has to call them all again by name.
During our Lent course this year the group I was part of found itself on several occasions thinking about the humanity and divinity of Jesus and finding it all very confusing!
The problem of course is not so much in the uniting of the two in Jesus but in knowing what divinity is! It is not of course a characteristic, or a quality, or a distinguishing mark, nor is it comparable to humanity. Divinity is not what distinguishes God from other beings in the universe, as humanity distinguishes us, say from monkeys. God is not another kind of being who can be described as divine and his divinity cannot therefore be a transferable attribute. Divinity is not what makes Jesus good or able to perform miracles. To say that Jesus is divine must therefore be to say something about God�s action in and through him, something about his humanity. Perhaps in Jesus� divinity looks more like a verb than a noun. Under the constraining conditions of a particular place and time God works through the revelation of Jesus� full humanity to bring about the restoration of our true humanity. So it is not the case that we fail to understand Jesus because he is divine. It is not the case that Jesus is different from us because he is divine. We fail to understand Jesus because we are insufficiently human, divorced from ourselves by sin which distorts or perverts the essential goodness of our human nature created by God. In the same way the disciples cannot see Jesus as he really is because their minds and hearts are still clouded by the distorting focus of sin which reduces their own humanity making it less real and therefore less capable of responding to Jesus. Their �hardness of heart� as Jesus describes it is a part of that force which does down the humanity of Jesus until it seems to have been forced out of the world altogether on the cross. And yet perhaps it is through the shock of seeing what they have done, the shock which reduces Peter to tears as the cock crows on his third denial � it is through such a shock that they are prepared for what follows.
It is always difficult to know what to say about the risen Christ � the resurrection breaks the bounds of language � and yet perhaps we can say that the risen Christ reveals his real humanity, humanity transfigured as it will be in the Kingdom when human beings become their surer selves as God intends them to be. And such humanity is not a disembodied spirit it is a humanity for whom touch and taste, sight and sound are still real. And through their encounter with the risen Christ the disciples begin the journey towards their own full humanity � the journey of redemption and sanctification. They know themselves forgiven, recalled, commissioned, and empowered by the love of Christ to go out and live his life which is their surer selves. So through the community of the church which exists to foster this new and more abundant life in all its members we too are forgiven, recalled and empowered to discover how life in Christ might glorify our own humanity, that Christ may be risen in us.
With my love and prayers for a blessed Easter
The Vicar writes
Stephen Tucker