We want to know that pain is not the end, that meaning can be found in suffering. Some people suffer for years before they die.īecause life can be so miserable, our stories need to have some purpose to them. Maybe they aren’t hanging on a piece of wood, their hands and feet thrust through with nails, but there are many kinds of torture. Every day someone in the world dies in agony. Of course, Jesus didn’t have a monopoly on suffering.
Imagine if the Christian scriptures closed with the image of a broken and beaten Jesus, gasping his last breath in a torment of pain? Who would want to read about that? Even the minimalist gospel of Mark shows us the empty tomb. We talk about resurrection because we can’t bear for crucifixion to be the end of the story. Apin Reflections on Holidays tagged Easter / Jesus / Resurrection / Salvation / Universalism by Barbara Stevens
