“Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so…”
(J. Donne, Holy Sonnet, Death Be Not Proud, 1609)
This year I have the joy of two Easters, for two weekends in a row I have relished the hope of the resurrected King. Ethiopia runs according to the Ethiopian (Ge’ez) calendar, a solar calendar which is most similar to the Coptic and Julian calendars. There is a 7 year difference between the Ethiopian calendar and the Gregorian (‘western’) calendar, for instance, I am posting this on the 19-05-2022, which is the 9-11-2014 by the Ethiopian calendar.
The current conflict started in Ethiopia on the 4th November 2020 (23-2-2013). With many displaced and a drought which set in several months ago people in many regions are in dire need. This weekend, however, was Fassika long weekend- Ethiopian Orthodox Easter- the mood shifted. Following Ethiopian tradition, fresh cut grass and papyrus were scattered on the ground, adorning stairs and floors in green, coffee ceremonies wafted the scent of roasting beans and incense out onto the street from restaurants and homes. The market filled with chickens (the meat of special occasions) and baskets of eggs, people broke their long fast with fresh meat and Doro wet (chicken stew). Three men standing in the back of a bajaj (tuktuk), the top down, danced and sang as it inched down the road. Music and lights, snapping firecrackers and shouts of celebration filled the dusk, da-dum, da-dum, da-dum of drumbeat. People dressed in their finery- crisp white traditional garb, women with hair coiffed and many wore circlets of palm leaf about their heads- kings and queens of a kingdom to come. Such rejoicing in the midst of hardship is astounding and humbling- hope emboldening people to scorn death’s power,
“Death is swallowed up in victory!
O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”
Paul is quoting Hosea in his first letter to the Corinthians (15 vs. 55), from a passage where Israel is condemned for its disobedience and warned of the wrath of God. We are told that the sins of the people are ‘kept in store’, God recalls their wrongdoing and will punish them accordingly. However, Hosea points to a time when there will be freedom from death, where God will ransom His nation from the power of death and redeem them to himself. “Though Israel, according to the flesh, be abandoned to destruction, God has mercy in store for his spiritual Israel, in whom all the promises were to have their accomplishment” (Matthew Henry Complete Commentary, 1710). Paul references this scripture as it is fulfilled in the power of the resurrected Christ who defeated the death which we deserved by taking it upon his holy and wholly righteous body and restoring humanity to a right relationship with their Creator. He is risen! Death is diminished, it no longer holds power or finality for those in Christ, He raises us glorious through Himself.
Can it be that we see real hope and real life clearest when our present reality is compromised? In C.S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce, the ghostly spirits of the dead appear in the heavenly country as smoky beings unable to affect the world in which they find themselves- the grass under their feet does not bend, an apple is an astronomical weight and spray from a waterfall is as dangerous as flying shards of glass. The bird in the tree, in contrast, can pluck the grass and bend the branch because it belongs to that country, a country where God’s sovereignty is brought to fruition- the very light is redeemed. Lewis describes that compared to the heavenly country our world, our solar system “seems like an indoor affair”, the smallness of our world and experience seen for what it really is in comparison to the majesty and completeness of God’s New Kingdom. ‘It is finished’ were Christ’s words of victory. We are yet those ‘smokey’ faded bodies, this world is the shadowy one, the incomplete one, marred by sin- creation itself is ‘groaning together in the pangs of childbirth…not only creation, but we ourselves who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons and daughters, the redemption of our bodies.’ (Romans 8vs 22). I was in a book club where we were discussing this idea of the ‘smokey’ beings and ‘bright’ heavenly beings in The Great Divorce and one man commented that this could be a way of understanding Christ’s resurrected body. When the risen Jesus is seen by his mother and Mary Magdeline, His disciples, to Cleopas and co. on the Emmaus road and to more than 500 other witnesses He had a physical human body. His hands, feet and side bore the open wounds of His crucifixion and yet He was more. The disciples, being afraid after the execution of their Lord, are locked in an upper room (Luke 24 vs. 36- 49, John 20 vs. 19- 29) when Jesus appears to them, it was suggested to me that this is an indication of Jesus’ ‘brightness’ (to use Lewis’ term)- He is more real than the locked door and second story walls which would keep us, of this worldly body, out. For our Christ in His glorious, resurrected form such impediments mean nothing- He doesn’t even mention them in the passage- He has overcome death, how could the physical deter Him?
As the poet, orator and theologian George Herbert wrote, “Death used to be an executioner, but the resurrection of Christ makes him nothing but a gardener. When he tries to bury you, he’s really planting you, and you’re going to come up better than before.”. This world will never be without darkness, uncertainty and suffering- this world is the hazy shadow of the Kingdom to come. Fassika has shown me the living hope of the resurrected King in the faces of people, for whom death has drawn near, rejoicing that their King has already won! “death [has] been conquered and branded for what it is by the Savior on the cross. It is bound hand and foot, all who are in Christ trample it as they pass and as witnesses to Him deride it, scoffing…now that the Savior has raised His body, death is no longer terrible; for all who believe in Christ trample on it as it were nothing and choose rather to die than deny their faith in Christ.” (Athanasius, On the Incarnation, AD 319). How does the truth of the resurrection impact the way in which we live day to day; denying ourselves, picking up our crosses daily and following Him (Matthew 16 vs. 24, Luke 9 vs. 23) - the ultimate Adam who took upon His flesh the crucifixion and the just wrath of God on our behalf?
We can join in the victory cry- It is FINISHED! (John 19 vs. 30) He is risen!
As John Donne powerfully conveys in his poem, Death Be Not Proud,
“…One short sleep past and we wake eternally.
And Death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.”
(John Donne, 1609)
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