“Let us not mock God with metaphor”

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In the 13 March 2022 episode of the Interpreter Radio Show, Terry Hutchinson, John Gee, and Kevin Christensen discuss the Interpreter Foundation’s latest film project, Undaunted: Witnesses of the Book of Mormon, as well as a recent Interpreter journal paper on fiery flying serpents and various aspects of the story of Joseph of Egypt. (You can listen to or download the 13 March 2022 broadcast of the Interpreter Radio Show at the link supplied above.)  That is the first period of the show.  The second portion of the show is a roundtable discussing the upcoming Come Follow Me lesson #17 (Exodus 18–20). The Interpreter Radio Show can be heard Sunday evenings from 7 to 9 PM (MDT), on K-TALK, AM 1640 — at least, it can be heard in the Salt Lake Valley — or, alternatively, you can listen live on the Internet at ktalkmedia.com.

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We have now entered into the week preceding Easter or, as it’s often known, “Holy Week.”  In that connection, here are a pair of past Deseret News columns that I wrote some time ago but that are directly relevant to the season:

“Holy Week aids Easter reflections”

“When Jesus purged the temple at Jerusalem”

I also enthusiastically recommend the content at this link, which can be found on the website of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  I cannot think of a better way of getting into the spirit of Easter than to immerse oneself in the music of Easter:

“Tabernacle Choir 2022 Easter Concert Available Online: ‘He Is Risen’ streams beginning Palm Sunday”

I’m just a tiny bit late in calling this to your attention, but all is not lost.  There’s still plenty of time for you and your family to catch up:

“Easter Day-by-Day”

In fact, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints offers some good and very accessible resources that can help you to remember and to reflect upon the atonement and resurrection of Jesus this week:

“Jesus Christ lives. This message is just as important now as it was on the day of His Resurrection. You can love, hope, forgive, change, grow, and live again #BecauseOfHim”

And there are resources available from the Interpreter Foundation, as well.  Several years ago, for example, Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship began commissioning a special article for publication every year at Easter — or, more accurately, annually on Good Friday.  Here are links to the articles that we’ve already published in this series:

“Resurrection Month” (Claudia Bushman)

“Christ and the Work of Suffering” (Melissa Wei-Tsing Inouye)

“The Crucifixion as a Mockery, Witness, and Warning of the Judgment” (George L. Mitton)

“The First Easter” (S. Kent Brown)

“Easters: The Eternal Atoning Sacrifice Testifies of the Everlasting Redeeming Savior” (Alan C. Ashton)

“The Healing and Exalting Powers of Christ Weave Together at Easter” (Ann Madsen)

“Why Did You Choose Me?”  (Joseph Grenny)

“Three Streams of Gratitude for Jesus”  (Mitt Romney)

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And now, perhaps, it’s time yet again for another of my favorite poems.  It’s the late poet and novelist John Updike’s “Seven Stanzas at Easter.”  Updike (1932-2009) was a two-time winner of the National Book Award and a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction.

In order to understand the poem completely, you need to know the noun remonstrance (re-MON-strance), which denotes “a forcefully reproachful protest”:

Make no mistake: if he rose at all
It was as His body;
If the cell’s dissolution did not reverse, the molecule reknit,
The amino acids rekindle,
The Church will fall.

It was not as the flowers,
Each soft spring recurrent;
It was not as His Spirit in the mouths and fuddled eyes of the
Eleven apostles;
It was as His flesh; ours.

The same hinged thumbs and toes
The same valved heart
That—pierced—died, withered, paused, and then regathered
Out of enduring Might
New strength to enclose.

Let us not mock God with metaphor,
Analogy, sidestepping, transcendence,
Making of the event a parable, a sign painted in the faded
Credulity of earlier ages:
Let us walk through the door.

The stone is rolled back, not papier-mache,
Not a stone in a story,
But the vast rock of materiality that in the slow grinding of
Time will eclipse for each of us
The wide light of day.

And if we have an angel at the tomb,
Make it a real angel,
Weighty with Max Planck’s quanta, vivid with hair, opaque in
The dawn light, robed in real linen
Spun on a definite loom.

Let us not seek to make it less monstrous,
For our own convenience, our own sense of beauty,
Lest, awakened in one unthinkable hour, we are embarrassed
By the miracle,
And crushed by remonstrance.

Updike’s poem, in part, reminds me of a comment from the Prophet Joseph Smith:

“The fundamental principles of our religion are the testimony of the Apostles and Prophets, concerning Jesus Christ, that He died, was buried, and rose again the third day, and ascended into heaven; and all other things which pertain to our religion are only appendages to it.”  (History of the Church, 3:30; from an editorial published on page 44 in the Elders’ Journal, July 1838; Joseph Smith was the editor of the periodical)

How central is the concept represented by this holiday to our faith and our hope for the future?  It is, simply, everything.

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You might find this of interest.  I did:

“Faith, Science, and Francis Collins: As an evangelical Christian, the retiring N.I.H. director has built bridges across America’s cultural divide. Have they burned?”

And, finally, did you happen to catch the video of the April 2022 World Report of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints?  If you didn’t, you might want to watch it for the several appalling horrors contained in it — chilling abominations that plainly come here’s from deep within the Christopher Hitchens Memorial “How Religion Poisons Everything” File©:

“The April 2022 Edition of the World Report”

Be sure, when you watch it, to have somebody nearby in case you need emergency assistance.  Preferably a cardiologist or an emergency medical technician.