So, if you perform the subtraction entertained in Parts 1 and 2 of this series, subtracting out from the gospel God's love and our values, morality, and politics, that's something pretty big left over: the resurrection of Jesus. That is, most definitely, some news.
But what is the import of this news? I'd like to break an answer down into two related parts, a bit today and a bit tomorrow.
My apologies for getting nerdy with the lingo here, but the first thing I'd like to say regarding the news of Jesus' resurrection is that it's news about ontology.
What, exactly, is the nature of reality? That might seem to be a pretty abstract philosophical question, with little practical import for your day to day life. But a lot depends upon the world you think you are living in. Reality is an arena of action, and it matters what you think is possible or impossible in that arena. Your beliefs about reality determine how you play the game of life.
So before we get into anything particularly Biblical and religious-sounding about Jesus' resurrection, the first thing to say is that the empty tomb is ontological news, information about the nature of reality.
What sort of news?
I like how the philosopher John Haught makes a contrast between an ontology of death versus an ontology of life. In a purely materialistic view of the cosmos life is accidental and fleeting. Mindlessness was our cosmic Alpha and mindlessness will be our cosmic Omega in the eventual heat death of the universe. We travel from death to death. That's the nature of reality, that's the game you are playing. Death is the god, the Ultimate Truth, of your life and all that exists.
The resurrection of Jesus announces a different reality, an ontology of life. The empty tomb announces that Life is Alpha and Omega, our beginning and end. And not just Life, but Love. This, and not death, is our Ultimate Truth. And that is a very different sort of game to play.
All that to say, in the gospel announcement of Jesus' resurrection an ontological claim is being made. News is being shared about the nature of reality and the shape of the world you are living in.
What is possible? What is impossible? What can we hope for and dream? Does anything, ultimately, matter? Do my small, tiny actions this day participate in some larger story or drama?
All those questions depend upon ontology, the sort of world you think you are living in, the game you are attempting to play. And the gospel comes to those questions with ontological news.
