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Mark Tapscott made a rather well-intentioned but ill-informed post regarding the open tomb on Sunday morning of Holy Week. This gave me opportunity, so I commented four times:

1 Allow is a prickly and pungent word in this context. No doubt why it was picked. IMO: He had no choice. He was bound and beaten.

Your commenters almost unanimously go for substitutionary atonement theory. I have never accepted that idea because it is such an obvious and low-minded get-out-of-jail-free card, covering a mass of ugly that stays ugly and offering to obviate the necessity of true contrition.

Jesus’ sacrifice was of his own ego. That is Christianity: crucifixion of the ego, each person of their own. Allow, disallow — basically, the insoluble conundrum of theodicy — have nothing to do with it. Take up your cross and follow me means crucify your ego. That is no trivial matter. Do that and you lose everything, as Jesus, a straitened aristocrat, did. Jesus led the way. Crossing out ego is Christianity’s central iconography.

2 OK, I see I just answered a question that was not asked, although the question I did answer is proper, as was my answer to it.

Why did he allow the tomb to be empty? Again, allow, while a goading word, is not at the heart of the incident. It is at the heart of the conundrum of theodicy.

The empty tomb is not a major consideration. The faith does not rise or fall on whether the tomb was empty or not. His body restored to health is a major consideration but not really the major consideration. The center of Christian iconography is the cross, not the tomb, empty or full. The empty tomb is in the nature of: yeah, so, what did you expect, that he would be dead?

The cross is a symbol of hope because it says that what must be undergone (crucifixion of ego) to reach divine happiness is safe to undergo. The story has a happy ending but it starts here, crucifying the ego on the cross. You can’t escape that. But you can rely on the tomb being empty and an ego-less personality loving all equally being saved from it. Salvation is from death, not from from sin, but death has to be undergone and sin has to be atoned thereby.

Actually, there are two deaths, one of the ego, one of the body. The first is hard. The second is easy and is faced fearlessly when the first is accomplished.

3 The central event of history is the crucifixion, not the resurrection. Without the resurrection, the crucifixion has no meaning, as St. Paul says. There is no hope if death has the last word. However, the center of the religion and therefore of history is the cross, not the empty tomb. The empty tomb is anti-climactic to the heavens rending at the moment of final surrender of ego on the cross.

These are all symbols, elements of an improving drama, describing existentially the universal phenomenology of liberation, or as we Christians call it, salvation.

The Greek Church emphasizes overcoming death. The Latin Church emphasizes overcoming sin. Both put the cross, not the empty tomb, at the summit of the spires on their sanctuaries. The cross is the center point of human history.

4 Actually, the church calls this Holy Week, not Easter Week. Easter Sunday concludes Holy Week, but the week, the pivot of the Christian Liturgical Year, is not named for Easter Sunday.

Along that line, some points.

One: the crown of thorns was a helmet of heavy fabric — much like a modern hoodie but without the shirt below — with metal spikes sown into its inside and a heavy chain sown into its skirt. This arrangement drove the spikes into the head, causing severe bleeding. It was meant to cause pain and humiliation, but it also helped make an early death, so it was an instrument of soft mercy.

Two, another soft mercy was to break the legs so the person could not stand on the foot peg inserted in the upright beneath their feet. This caused rapid suffocation. In Jesus’ case, this was going to be done so onlookers could return to their homes, and because everyone knew he was innocent, so, let the little poor man die as soon as possible. But it was unnecessary. Jesus had already died.

Three, persons crucified could live for days, sometimes weeks, before succumbing to the inevitable. Crucifixion was more a torture and an admonishment to others than it was an execution, although it was that too. Jesus’ succumbing on the day of his execution was a soft mercy.

God survives man’s victories. Recall Jacob and his wrestling partner. The sons of Abraham got in a fight with God, and again, God survived their stratagems, moves, and heavy blows.

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Therein there also shines this little exchange:

Truncated to tapscottmark
Good question. And where is the empty tomb? Why can I be condemned for not believing in something I have no access to?

“Revelation when applied to religion, means something communicated immediately from God to man. It is revelation to the first person only, and hearsay to every other, and, consequently, they are not obliged to believe it. It is a contradiction in terms and ideas to call anything a revelation that comes to us at second hand, either verbally or in writing. Revelation is necessarily limited to the first communication.”

David R. Graham to Truncated
The number of things you do believe in without having access to them is legion. Start with the ingredients of your morning Starbucks. On the obverse, the number of things you do not believe in that you could believe in because they are real also is legion. So really, what you believe in or not, and whether you believe in anything or not, is inconsequential and trivial. Your cognitive capacity relative to the world may be compared to that of an ant surveying the ocean. Not your domain. Or, on the obverse, the world is entirely your domain and you’re just too arch to realize or admit it.

Also this one:

tapscottmark to Truncated
It is a good question because neither Buddha nor any of the leaders of other major religions claimed to have been resurrected. And if the Resurrection did not actually happen, then, as Paul says, Christians are fools. That said, you didn’t actually answer my “good question,” you raised a different issue with your claim that “revelation is necessarily limited to the first communication.” But if you concede that God can speak to one person, would you not also concede that He could speak to many people with the same message?

David R. Graham to tapscottmark
I think God speaks to many people but with a message meant personally for the one spoken to. The message gets shared out, yes — intentionally by its author — and is soteriological, but its original provenance is intensely personal. This, paradoxically, is what makes it universal. The intensely personal quality of the message arrests the attention of others.

Teresa of Avila, Madame Guyon, Mary of Agreda, and Mary Baker Eddy come to mind.

Each of us wants to be spoken to in our roots, our soul, our ineffability. Only what reaches that abyss of grandeur really, truly matters to us

Also, Paul says we are fools, himself leading the pack.

You know, Mark, I do not pose as a lawyer, but you pose as an exegete, even, on occasion, as a theologian. What is it with people today? Nobody who is not an electrician says they know how to wire your house, but nearly everyone who is not an exegete or a theologian says they know how to read The Bible. I think this is why Jesus wept.

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In a football game, six players on either side go on kicking the ball till it’s sent to the goal. The goal of life consists of two posts: secular and spiritual. You must see that the ball does not go beyond the posts. It should be hit within two posts. You are born as human with the goal that you are not born again. You must live within frames of secular and spiritual pursuits. Then you will attain liberation. Six bad qualities – lust, anger, greed, desire, pride and jealousy – are on one side and the good qualities – truth, right conduct, peace, love, nonviolence, and sacrifice – are on the other side. The game is between these two teams. Another lesson we learn from this game is, football is kicked as long as it’s inflated with air (ego). When it’s deflated, you take it in your hands! To lead a fruitful and meaningful life, render service to mankind, which will take you nearer to God.