Let me attach a bit more to yesterday's piece by James Alison.
We thus have a very coherent body of witness to the ultimate stumbling block being Jesus' death. Jesus knows that he can lead his disciples up to a certain point, but finally they will be scandalized by him, and that only the resurrection, at the same time as it removes the stone from the mouth of Jesus' grave, will remove the final stumbling block. The stumbling block that it will remove is the human impossibility of following and imitating another man in a path of self-donation that regards death as without substance. What we see then is the link between the notion of the stumbling block and the notion of discipleship. What we have in the Gospels is Jesus teaching the disciples to imitate him in all the things he does: in preaching, teaching, healing, and exorcisms.He would have them imitate him in his self-giving toward death, as all the warning about the persecutions to which they will be prone indicate. However, he know that, in fact, they will not be able to imitate him perfectly in this until after his death and resurrection, so he prepares them as far as possible for his death. In this way at least they can be his witnesses, and after his death they will be able to live out the imitation of his self-giving unto death, thus bearing witness to the Father, without fear of death.
I suppose the only way to talk about life eternal and the powerlessness of death is to die - and then be raised. To talk about it is one thing. We all do that. We all talk about new life out of death- but to go through death with the expectation that life awaits us there seems a bit absurd and downright frightening. That is the Good News though. It is the story of life that is no ours to have and to hold - but ours to give away as freely as God's love is handed out for all for new life. The resurrection becomes not a 'fantasy' or mere myth, it becomes for us the next steps of our lives. That is, it becomes what will become us - people who donate our lives as a part of the vision of God's Reign. We need not fear pushing the envelope of hope and peace and justice and mercy and forgiveness. Yes, there may be consequences to such a contrary life, but there is life beyond what we could ever imagine - life that seems to spring from nothing - even death.
Connection: Encouragement to be - to say - to move - to give - to dream - to share - to donate even that which is most precious to us - our lives. That is what we are handed through the resurrection - encouragement to be vitally alive even when we know that we are afraid to be so alive and renewed.
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