THOUGHTS OF A MONK

“Honest to God”

Myrrh Bearing Women
May 7, 2006

Have you ever worked on a computer on the Internet and been annoyed by those infernal
pop-ups? Little unwanted messages that pop-up right in the middle of what you are working on, interrupt everything, usually trying to tell you something that you don’t want to know or sell you something that you don’t want to buy? Enough people complained about it that the Internet now has a system whereby you can block those pop-ups.  On my computer all pop-ups are blocked. I think it now says that over 100 pop-ups have been blocked and the number keeps rising. Of course, every once in a while there will be a time when you want the pop-up to appear. A little message box will read: if you want more information click here. So you click and then the message says “POP-UPS BLOCKED,” click here if you want this pop-up unblocked. You click there and then another dialogue box comes up and asks ever so innocently, would you like just this pop-up unblocked, or would you like all pop-ups unblocked? I never choose that second option because, quite frankly, if I unblocked the pop-ups I’m not sure how to block them again. Better to keep that unwanted and unexpected information bottled up, blocked. Because, you never know what surprises might be in store for you if you unblocked that screening device.

The Myrrhbearing Women didn’t have their pop-up block on when they went to the tomb, and look what happened! They were struck with an unexpected message and they were so stunned that they fled in terror. Sometimes I want to do the same when I am hit with certain unexpected computer messages! The Myrrhbearers’ fright was stirred up not just by the fact that the body they were looking for was missing, but even more by the message that they got from the young man in the white robe sitting in the tomb who said that Jesus “has risen, he is not here.”

Jesus Christ said he would rise from the dead on the third day but who believed him? Who was really listening? People say all sorts of things, make all kinds of claims but don’t follow through. Jesus stuns the Myrrhbearing Women, and the disciples, and us too, by actually following through on what he said he would do. Now there’s a concept that runs contrary to modern life. We live in a society, nay even a world, which worships euphemisms. Let’s not really say what we mean, someone might hold us to it! Or worse, it might reveal a truth we’d rather keep hidden. Of course we may question the government’s statements about Iraq, the budgets, and many other things, but do we really want to reveal where we really were last night, what we really spent that money on, how much we really ate, whether or not we really practiced what we said we would, and these are just the little things! Sometimes we say things because we need deniability when things don’t turn out right. And it’s not just the President of the United States who does this! “I really didn’t break that lamp. I was nowhere near it. Honest! Honest to God!”

I remember back in the 1960s a book written by Bishop John Robinson of the Church of England called Honest to God. It caused uproar in some religious circles. But he didn’t invent that phrase. “Honest to God” in popular usage is an oath intended to affirm that what we are saying is in fact true – “Honest to God.”  “I did just what you asked me to do, honest to God.” We are stunned when people actually do what they say they are going to do. It’s so infrequent that we have to have affirmative phrases in the language to reinforce what we say, since the truth of what we say is so often discounted by experience with our actions.

There was a movie called Liar that came out a few years ago. The hero always lied to get ahead, he told people what he thought they wanted to hear, or what he thought would do him the most good. Then there was a period in his life when he could only tell the truth. Boy, did that cramp his style! From that point on his life was one trial after another. After some of the things he said, he’s lucky they didn’t crucify him! And all too often that is the lesson we learn from telling the truth; it is too painful. Better to just block it out, hide it, throw out a smoke screen, craft a euphemism, but never, never be honest—it’s just too dangerous.

As Christians, Jesus Christ is the model for our lives. Indeed, we are to live our lives in such a way as to reveal Christ to the world. Jesus told us the truth. It was scary to hear. It was also liberating. But of course, what we understand from Christ’s resurrection is more than just Jesus following through on what he said. It was God’s promise: a promise through Christ to complete God’s total participation in our life on earth. The final step is our reunion with God on the Last Day. The reign of God begins on earth and continues, as we say, unto ages of ages. God did not take on our flesh so that we should die, but that we should live, live forever with God. And so the message the Myrrhbearers heard at the tomb is a message for us as well:  Christ has gone ahead of us to prepare the way for us. Honest.  Honest to God!