The mysteries of life and the mystery of Jesus’ life are interwoven. Is this a coincidence or a remarkable event that leads us to the window of knowing?

The Easter sermon at my church was more direct than usual.

Here is the reality facing Christianity: an increasing number of people simply do not believe that the resurrection ever occurred. Our priest went on to quote news journals, scholarly publications and “top” thinkers of our day, all insisting that Christianity’s refusal to relinquish the resurrection may prove its undoing.

In fact, it has been estimated, according to some polls, that 30 percent of Christians do not accept the truth of the resurrection. In our modern, scientific age, who could believe a story about God coming to earth, sharing our pains and sufferings, being killed, and then rising from the dead? It defies everything we know about biological life on this planet.

Our priest went on to argue that if the resurrection did not occur — if Christ did not physically rise from the dead — then Christianity was a joke, Christians a pathetic group of misled people, and Jesus himself a liar. Without the resurrection, he continued, there is no faith, no church, no mass or service around which we commemorate each Sunday the body and blood of Christ. It was a pretty harsh message for an Easter Sunday, and my own reaction was to disagree, at least in part, with some of the conclusions.

Where the resurrection is concerned, it seems to me there are three likely scenarios.

Scenario 1

Jesus was a man who willingly went to his death because he believed himself the Messiah. Most people would call such a man deranged. And this means we must accept that his followers, who knew him intimately, were either themselves deranged or were so overwhelmed by hysteria upon his death that they imagined his resurrection. They then chose a life-long mission preaching Jesus’ gospel that ultimately led to their martyrdom.

Such faith may be false, but it is not a lie. A lie, after all, is an intentional untruth. That Jesus’ followers might have embraced the resurrection story out of a deep love for him is not beyond the pale, but that they would allow themselves to be tortured and killed for what they knew to be false is harder to swallow. So, the resurrection may or may not be true, but the faith of his followers was almost certainly sincere, born out of a deep love for the man and his mission. Hardly a pathetic tale, if you ask me, whatever the final revelation.

Scenario 2

Jesus intentionally lied and his follows were either duped by him or they fabricated stories themselves in order to justify to others their commitment to his mission. Again, as in scenario one, we find his closest followers were willing to die but in this case not for a believed myth but for what they would have known was a lie. History offers plenty of examples of misguided people following misguided leaders, but it runs counter to experience that human beings willingly lay down their lives for something they know to be false, much less dedicate the rest of their lives to a mission or leader in which they don’t truly believe. Germans, for example, believed in German nationalism even if they did not buy Hitler as the once and future king.

But again, even if the resurrection was a lie, are those who later embraced the story and the faith pathetic? They could only be pathetic if they knowingly embraced a lie and called it truth. What if they were led instead to the most profound of truths? What did Jesus teach — that we must love our neighbors as ourselves, that we should nurture the poor, that those who are humble, who love peace, who are suffering righteously are beloved of God? Are these the teachings of a malicious person or a spiritual genius?

To embrace a divine mystery in the hope that it is true is not the same as living a lie. It is, on the contrary, indicative of the human desire to transcend death and experience eternal love. If we are going to be duped, better to be duped by a choir of angels than by the latest theory concocted by post-modern intellectuals.

Scenario 3

There is the possibility, of course, that the resurrection is true, that Jesus was the son of God, that he came to earth as a symbol of God’s love, and that he did rise again and inspire a dedicated group of followers whose teachings transformed the world in which we live.

We can no more be certain of this than we can of the number of angels who can dance on the head of a pin. We might even concede — as many great Christian thinkers have — that doubt is integral to faith and that we choose faith over doubt because of our deep need to reconcile ourselves with the eternal. (Remember Paul’s leap of faith?) Does the existence of a need guarantee its fulfillment? No, but it does raise an interesting question.

If biological life is all there is, how is it that our minds conceived of God? Animals might tremble in fear, but they do not — as best we know — invent stories of resurrection. From where did the spark of inspiration come that enables human beings to look heavenward for answers to the great questions about existence, life and death, and the universe?

The mysteries of life and the mystery of Jesus’ life are interwoven. Is this a coincidence or a remarkable event that leads us to the window of knowing? Either way it is hardly pathetic to choose love over hate, hope over despair, or resurrection over death. It is nothing less than a deep longing for divine grace.