Dear Friends,
I’ve spoken before about the ever thoughtful and entertaining writer, Joe Klein, a passing acquaintance, whose relationship centered around the brilliant actor and mutual friend, Ron Silver. Joe and I had the privilege of speaking at Ron’s funeral in 2009 and have not seen each other since.
This past Easter Monday (the day after Easter Sunday), Joe posted an article on his Substack site that momentarily took me out of a joyful, “Bright Easter” mood. Though I was soon back singing Eastertide songs, I felt nudged to write Joe a Substack “letter,” which he may or may not ever see. If you wish, you can read the entirety of his post by going to Joe’s Substack link, which is given in my post below. While writing it, I was reminded of the many, many conversations Ron and I would have on identical subjects.
I trust, my brothers and sisters in Christ, you had a blessed Easter and may the remaining days of your Eastertide be filled with the joyous presence of our risen Lord. And, yes, Joe, we will enjoy the flowers along the way!
He is Risen!
D. Paul
The Church’s One Foundation IS Jesus Christ Her Lord!”
Dear Joe,
Why, oh why do you continue to “kick against the goads” like Saul did of old, resisting the promptings of the living Christ? You are a bright man, a brilliant writer, and far more even-handed than most in our turbo-charged political climate.
After gracefully setting the stage in your April 6 podcast, “HOPE SPRINGS, The Day After Easter,” (josephklein.substack.com) by listing the beautiful Beatitudes, you tell us, “It’s taken me a lifetime to understand Easter.” Wow! That’s a mouthful, Joe. Few Christians would claim as much. Yes, this past Easter millions of us around the world joined our voices in proclaiming “Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!” We know what we believe! But within that mysterious crucible of the cross and the resurrection are “the unsearchable riches of Christ,” and few, if any, fully “understand” the “ineffable,” fathomless mysteries of Easter and, for that matter, Passover. There’s a reason it’s called, among other things, the “Paschal Mystery.”
You’ve almost said as much, Joe, but you seem to be of two minds, thus my employing the goading reference when Christ speaks to Saul on the Damascus Road: “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads” (Acts 26:14 NIV). But moving past the ox (Saul) being goaded and your own amusing attachment to Monty Python’s, “Blessed are the Cheesemakers,” you’ve “come to consider Jesus our greatest prophet,” a rather conventional and safe position for those wanting to give the historical Christ stature while stripping him of any divinity. And yet, ambivalently, you question if this prophetic Christ is “…perhaps something more, a portal through which to glimpse the ineffable.” Ah, you’re getting closer, Joe, for Christ identifies himself as the “gate;” indeed, “I am the door” he told the cynical Pharisees—the “prominent scholars” of his age who were just as skeptical as the prominent, crucifixion/resurrection denying scholars of our age—those nebulous, “most scholars” you refer to and seemingly rely upon. Which leads me to ask, Joe: who’s counting the number of scholars on each side of the crucifixion/resurrection, fact or fiction debate? This glittering generality of “most scholars” must be a leftover from your “confidential sources tell us…” reporting days.
Christ wouldn’t hesitate to identify such “prominent scholars” as “thieves and robbers,” for “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber” (John 10:1 ESV) “If anyone enters by me,” Jesus continues in verse 9, “he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.” And what a verdant pasture it is! As David, the rare prophet and poet of the Hebrew Scriptures exalts, “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures” (Psalm 23:1-2). By stark contrast, Jesus tells us, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy” vs. what he claims to do: “I came that they [his sheep] may have life and have it more abundantly” (John 10:10 ESV). Christ is far more than the “greatest prophet” and “a portal through which to glimpse the ineffable.” He is Emmanuel—God with us—and all the naysaying “prominent scholars” notwithstanding, “…in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Col 2:9 KJV), as the Apostle Paul wrote the Colossians.
Despite cherry-picking a single verse of Paul’s to bolster your “vernal” vision of the “purpose and nature of resurrection,” the great Easter story is more than the cycles of vegetation, more than “seeds and planting,” it’s more than “spring awakening” or a “phoenix rising.” It’s about “The Word becoming flesh and making His dwelling among us” (John 1:14). It’s about, “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive” (I Co. 15:22 KJV). It’s about the One who said, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die” (John 11:25 NIV). And, yes, it’s about that intrusive banner raised high at the ballpark proclaiming, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16 KJV). And finally, it’s about a broken and restored Mary Magdalene, rushing from the empty tomb back to the fearful disciples and announcing, “I have seen the Lord!” (John 20:18 NIV).
Of course, this is all mythical gibberish to you and to your theological aids-de-camp—those “thieves and robbers” of the true shepherd—the Good Shepherd—who ultimately lays down his life for his sheep. His death was for me, Joe, it was for you. I fear you’ve been bewitched by the likes of the “Jesus Seminar,” a group of known (Marcus Borg) and unknown scholars in the 90’s who would use a series of colored beads to determine what words Christ might or might not have been said. With some creative “beading” along the way, they achieved their forgone conclusion—affirming, to some measure, the historical Jesus while denying the divine Jesus. It was academically infantile, with N. T. Wright saying it “…ought to be scrapped,” and Luke Timothy Johnson of the Chandler School of Theology calling it, “…a self-indulgent charade.” As Paul warned us, Joe: “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, which are based on human tradition and the spiritual forces of the world rather than on Christ” (Col 2:8). The real story of Easter transcends a “magnificent elm” or a beautiful “spray of daffodils,” lovely though they may be. To paraphrase C. S. Lewis, Easter is either the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on humanity or it is the greatest truth of all times.
Dig deep, my friend, into these “unsearchable riches.” Expand your theological oeuvre—read Lewis, read Chesterton (if you’ve not done so already), read Bonhoeffer, read N T. Wright, but primarily, read the Bible from cover to cover. Be open, let it soak in, and take your time with the Gospel of John, pondering both its bookends: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:1-5 NIV). The introit to that 1st chapter is followed by 20 chapters culminating in these closing words: “This is the disciple who testifies to these things and who wrote them down. We know that his testimony is true. Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written” (John 21:24-25 NIV).
Don’t be satisfied, Joe with the seasonal vegetation of the temporal, but with the lasting fruits of eternity. Boldly, not behind the veil of “most scholars,” look upon “the man of sorrows” full face, and call him for the imposter he was or the Lord he is. Forget the ethereal, molecular composition of his visage—he was raised from the dead, he was seen by 500 according to Paul, and he stands at the door of your heart and asks to come in.
Take the step of faith, Joe.
D. Paul
Amen
CHRIST IS RISEN! HE IS RISEN INDEED!
