CELEBRATING FOR HE IS GOOD

July 15th, 2007 by admin

Published on behalf of Ayoma Fernando. (Available on Scope June edition)

What would you feel on the day of Jesus’ crucifixion, if you happened to be one of his disciples? I would feel a deep sense of loneliness and loss. Breaking news received from the women who went to the tomb on Easter morning would sound all rubbish to my analytical mind! (“How can a positive Gibbs free energy reaction favour inside a dead cell?” a chemist would argue.) But what if you too happened to be with the women on that early Easter morning? Would you doubt Him and get back to your normal living? Would you believe Him and be transformed within? Truly speaking, how do you celebrate Easter year after year?

I feel we Christians at times choose to live a comfortable ‘Christian attitude’ that neither doubts nor believes Jesus’ resurrection. We say we believe His resurrection and celebrate Easter, but our living would not reflect why we celebrate it. Many a time we are scared to face the costs it involves. We are not prepared to allow them to transform our lives.

I work in a private firm. Sometimes I wish I was not a Christian not because I have doubts in His resurrection, but because of the costs it involves. You would illang kai (ask for trouble) often because you would not choose to isolate yourself from the messy situations, instead you would want to struggle with them. You would become uninteresting because you would not carry or pass around other peoples’ gossip. You would lose the image of decency others have of you, because you would identify with janitors and peons too! You would lose points because you reject to enjoy preference some may want to show you. Working seemed just a means of survival for me sometimes as the ‘cost of living as a Christian’ increased. I realized how easily Christians could decide to live a comfortable ‘Christian attitude’ that neither doubts nor believes His resurrection as the events around us begin to press us. We easily conform to the views and attitudes around us that deny the hope we have in a good God.

We say God is good, but we have questions about the volume of his goodness. We see the length, width and depth of his goodness within our own defined limits. When the costs seem bearable or even recoverable, we stay tuned to his goodness. When the costs seem exhaustible, we doubt his goodness. His goodness becomes relative to the situation we face. But God’s goodness is absolute. No one by his works can add a decimal to it. No one by his doubts can diminish it. Do we believe in such an absolute goodness of God as much as we sing it aloud in our praises to him? Often Christians underestimate the volume of his goodness when they are inflicted with suffering. But when someone accepts as his own, any suffering that inflicts upon him, the person who inflicted the suffering loses all power over him. No more he would perceive it as something strange to his being, but will have the strength to resist it. Once it is resisted, our minds would be more clear to identify what we really fear of the suffering itself. Is it for the immediate physical pain we fear suffering could bring? Or is it the fear of having to unmask different masks we prefer to wear? Masks that give us a social recognition, personality, confidence, security. Masks that cover our weaknesses, inferiority, fear of the future. Unless we are prepared to unmask ourselves, we would not allow his goodness to penetrate our lives. Unless his goodness penetrates our lives, we would not taste the length, width and depth of his goodness. When the magnificence of his goodness is tasted, we would not shrink away as challenges come our way. Then not only would we be empowered to face them, but also our lives would be shaped and transformed within.

Picture every Christian who follows Christ as a participant, called to perform in the gigantic universal drama of making peace, and bringing justice in the broken and wounded creation so as to redirect everything back to his original purpose. The audience filled with non-believers would come and watch the drama (free of entry!). The excited participants would continuously walk up to the stage and perform in the respective roles they have been called for. As the scenes move on, the audience will applaud and some would even come up and join the drama crew as it continues. As you too enter the scene either in your university or in your work place or in your family or in your church, silently ask yourself, ‘How far would my piece of performance reflect the kind of God I celebrate?’

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