The week comes to an end with the last part of this long paragraph being added on.
The resurrection made possible an understanding of being human as in some way, yet to be discussed, unnecessarily involved in death. It is, as it were, the fact of the resurrection which revealed the fact of unnecessary human involvement in death, the possibility of forgiveness reaching even into human death. However, there is more than this. The resurrection mad possible a shift of perception on the part of the apostolic group as to the content of human involvement with death. This is related to what the disciples had not understood while Jesus was teaching them before his death and to what they did understand after his resurrection. This nonunderstanding is clearly presented in all the Gospel as related to Jesus' death in a rather particular sense. It was not that they merely did not understand, and after the resurrection, with the coming of the Holy Spirit, they did understand. The nonunderstanding of what Jesus was about was marked by the normal human limit of understanding which is that death is a definitive reality, and therefore that their relationship to Jesus and what he was teaching was something circumscribed by the normal parameters of human life and death. Jesus' understanding was not marked by that understanding: he was thus able creatively to imagine the possibility of a self-giving into the hands of violent men as not only a salvific revelation of the sort of love the Father is, trusting himself into his Father's hands, but also as an educational exercise for those as yet unable to understand the nondefinitive nature of death.
Jesus was not marked by that notion of the 'normal parameters of human life and death' and that is the breakthrough. There is no way to know what Jesus was thinking. Alison is himself imagining what Jesus must have been imagining (that's my thought). It is that ability to imagine what is not yet that keeps the children of God breaking through the barriers in life that seem to keep us wrapped up in our brokenness. I had to stop for a moment as I read "(Jesus) was thus able creatively to imagine the possibility of a self-giving into the hands of violent men" because it is not the place into which I would imagine myself. And yet, the violence of the world will not be brought down until we - like the one we call Lord, Jesus, imagine another way and begin to take that way - no matter what might be the cost. In Jesus, we see that this kind of life through death imagination is a power that can make life expand so that the healing of the whole cosmos will not be a mere dream - but a living reality that pops up here and there. Death (that creature of many faces and many heads) can be faced by people whose imagination is able to pull back the curtain and see the truth of God's power for life.
Connection: It is my hope that this talk of imagination is not merely something that comes when one gets older. Maybe it is - maybe faithful imagination is like wisdom that is not moved by the events of the day that can stir up anxiety. Maybe this imagination is what is needed in our world - rather than the anxious hearts of politicos who thrive on ways to avoid death and its many faces - rather than imagine the way through death and into the healing of the world.
O God of life, you open up the shalom of your Reigning power and we are given a place to gaze beyond the troubles at hand. Keep our hearts tuned to such a vision for life that does not hold back. Amen.
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