In the movie King Richard, for which Will Smith won an Oscar for his leading role, Richard’s daughter, Venus, gloats about her victory in the car on their way home. Richard immediately nips the gloating in the bud, and firmly admonishes Venus never to do that again.
So as Christians all around the world celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the tomb, I am reminded that Jesus had every reason and opportunity to boastfully present Himself to the Jewish and Roman authorities that had prosecuted Him, but He didn’t.
Instead, Jesus tells the first witness of His resurrection to tell His disciples to meet him in Galilee.
But why Galilee?
Surely the place to be, for a resurrected Jesus, is in Jerusalem.
Pilate, the Roman colonial representative, is in Jerusalem.
The Sanhedrin, the Jewish ruling council, is in Jerusalem.
The witnesses of the crucifixion are in Jerusalem.
Everyone that matters right now is in Jerusalem.
Besides, at this time, Galilee is considered backward and insignificant. It is also very far from the political capital, Jerusalem, where all the drama of Jesus’ crucifixion unfolded.
Nothing is happening in Galilee!
So why would Jesus bypass Jerusalem, the epicentre of all that’s unfolded, and head to the nondescript backwaters of Galilee?
You see, Jesus’ instruction to meet in Galilee is counterintuitive in every sense.
Yet herein is an inconvenient truth that seems to elude much of the 21st Century Church.
Jesus isn’t going to use His resurrection to prove a point. Jesus isn’t going to show Himself to Pilate and the High Priests and say look at me now… you thought you had snuffed me out!
Jesus knew that if He were to scoot around showing Himself in His resurrected body in Jerusalem, He would have turned Himself into an idol and missed all opportunity of making disciples.
And this is the inconvenient truth that seems so elusive in our age. Jesus wasn’t looking for adulation; He wasn’t there to prove any point. He was rather looking to make disciples who would engage the world as He did: heal the sick, set free the demonically oppressed and ultimately announce the reality of freedom from the hegemonic world systems, the Kingdom of God.
Fifty days later, at Pentecost, a public spectacle that punctuated His resurrection finally came to Jerusalem in a way that showcased the core intentions of Jesus.
The city seemed to have been abuzz, as it would be at this time, when the Holy Spirit came down on the disciples that had been meeting there. And the issue here is not so much what Jesus’ disciples did, but rather what people experienced.
The Scriptures recount how people from different nations heard the announcement of the Kingdom of God in their own languages.
The symbolism here is astonishing. The reality of the resurrection of Jesus Christ was not about proving Himself right, but rather announcing the good news of freedom from world systems in an intimate personal way to every individual of every nation. To me, this is the power of the resurrection!
The early Christians understood that discipling would require them to sacrifice their conveniences and privileges like Jesus did, to intimately deliver the good news to the world.
Therefore, the wealthy among them sold their lands to fund the movement. Jesus had bid them to take up their cross and follow him.
That early Church set the tone, or at least ought to have set the tone, for us, the 21st Century Church, that the Gospel of Jesus wasn’t about an imposition of doctrines over others or proving one religion right and others wrong. Rather, it was an invitation to a transforming relationship with God, not only of self, but also of community through loving each other.
Had Jesus gone to straight to Jerusalem, people would have believed in Him for His power and not for the love of God for humanity.
But alas for humankind, what Jesus sought to avoid by not going to Jerusalem is precisely what’s being celebrated today in the 21st Century Church.
