Is He Risen?

THE RASHOMON TALE OF A RESURRECTION

A "not an option" and "fringe independent" candidate for Congress in a 45% faith affiliated Virginia, as a resident of 32% faith affiliated Arlington, post a pandemic that closed places of worship and found the numbers of "nones" increase by six percent, probably does not have a winning message if he is still talking about Easter after Easter Sunday, and running against a "not afraid to burn in Hell" incumbent, who is proud as a father that his four kids have rejected God, church and religion, and, after winning over 75% of the vote, decided to align himself with the Freedom from Religion Foundation, but isn't #GoodTrouble a good thing? How about #Resist?

In the first installment of this Lenten Season video, we touched upon the historical Jesus, who most credible scholars will concede had lived, falling short of raising the question as to why a nonviolent person might gain so much notoriety as to have both the local religious authorities and the Roman government, traditionally enemies, giving rise to even tax collectors being looked upon with reproach for their collusion, wanting not only to punish him, but also crucify him, a penalty reserved for only the worst of criminals and enemies of the state. That is an important question, even in criminal law, where there is an actus reus, or bad act, as well as a mens rea, or culpable mind, which could make the difference between involuntary manslaughter and capital murder.

So, in this video, we even depart the traditional Easter sermon, which tends to focus on Mary of Magdalene in the Johannine Gospel, and rather fuse the string of accounts across the Canonical Gospels to piece together the parts of the story into one unified narrative, first to discover consistencies, but also to impart some understanding as to what had occurred after the crucifixion, giving rise to a debate regarding whether a person who died under suspicious circumstances--enough these days to cause folks to march in a street during a pandemic--had been raised from the dead, as had been prophesied. And, especially the tale of Matthew, a colluding taxpayer himself, adds a broadened perspective about the events that began with a group of women arriving at a sealed tomb with brand new spices and hoping to get somebody to open the sepulcher just for them so they could do the thing they wanted to do, which always makes for a scene at a funeral when somebody didn't get a chance to do their thing before the casket is closed.

And any preacher's kid who has seen a lot of funerals knows exactly how that scene always plays out.