St.Paul’s vision of the risen Christ, vivid enough to blind him, was not a visual sighting, but was all in the mind and the imagination. Who understands that? One often has to act on the assumption that one’s beliefs are correct; and we talk in a figure of speech about things being “blindingly obvious”. But one’s beliefs cannot always be correct; one must sometimes make a mistake. The cry of dereliction from the cross, must surely have stemmed from the fear that the whole thing had been a ghastly mistake. True it was followed by a cry that it was all finished; but there was nothing else he could say, and it killed him to say it. Suppose his fear was only too true: that he had completely misunderstood, and it had all been a mistake. We can all have similar thoughts. At the end of a career, even if it seemed a vocation at the time, one can still ask whether it was all worth it; would one not have done better to have chosen something else? Was not the sense of vocation just a fantasy in one’s mind? Is there any defence against wishful thinking?
For a man to claim to be God, or a son of God in this world, is always a dangerous thing to do. Most people nowadays would regard it as a sign of madness; and in Jesus’ time the Jews regarded it as blasphemy. We can choose between the Nicean Creed which agrees that it is blasphemy, by stating that Jesus was the only son of God, and the opening verses of John’s Gospel, which say the opposite, that everyone who believes is a son of God. Indeed the Wisdom of Solomon says that every righteous man is a son of god. Yet we all recognise that if every Christian went around saying he was God incarnate, there would be pandemonium. Why was Jesus an exception to this sensible practical rule? His contemporaries clearly thought he was not.
He put his hearers into an impossible position; either they had to commit blasphemy in the eyes of their contemporaries, if they were to believe in him; or they had to say he was mad, when apparently he made the blind see, and the lame walk. Wisely he refused to give any sign from heaven (except his healings), which would have made things easier. He made things harder by telling them they must eat his flesh and drink his blood. And if they did believe, how was anyone better off? This prophet was not interested in making a better society; he was hardly interested in society. They would be much worse off financially, and were supposed to abandon their infirm parents; simply to follow him. This was such a privilege that everything else had to be left behind.
In a sentence: they were expected to use their eyes and their judgement. And this is exactly what God expects people to do today. No-one who abandons his judgement, in order to shelter behind some creed, whether it be pacifism or communism or anything else, need think that the living God has much time for him, or that he is a candidate for the Kingdom of Heaven. Even if you are an atheist, life says much the same thing, doesn’t it? If you do not use your eyes and your judgement, you are lost. The religious person says that God seeks to open men’s eyes and form their judgement, so that they choose aright. Viewing the situation more as a whole, is it legitimate to say that the whole of life seems to be a groping towards greater maturity, and greater consciousness? Jung would have agreed, I think, that God has little scope for achieving either of these things if men live by the Rule Book. It is the same now, as it was then. Man only evolves in the mental and spiritual worlds nowadays; his physical evolution was complete long ago. That means he must use his eyes and his judgement in order to mature.
Of course one has doubts about the resurrection; it is so far outside our normal experience. And even if one does believe it happened, is it wise to talk about reigning with Christ in glory as a result of it, as the new Easter Collect suggests? Much better to follow Cranmer, and talk about the difference it makes to one’s daily conduct. And the most obvious difference is we should no longer consider ourselves bound by everyday experience. We should be prepared to entertain the idea of creating a new heaven and a new earth; and if it seems practicable, set about doing so, even on a small scale. Even with one other person, particularly if you are in the Romeo and Juliet situation.