Musings: Notes From My Daybook

“It makes a big difference whether we think someone is dead or alive.” So begins Luke Timothy Johnson’s book Living Jesus:Learning the Heart of the Gospel.

Johnson’ point is well taken. When someone is dead the process of relating and knowing him or her comes to an end. The relationship is over and the possibilities for learning and sharing doing together come to an end. It is true that we might be able to learn more about him or her as time goes on. Maybe something gets discovered, an old letter, a previously unknown photograph or newspaper article, and that allows us to know more.

However, even learning some little thing is an interesting tidbit about that person. Such things are echoes from the past, not some new word from the present.

When someone is alive a completely different set of expectation are in play. People who are alive are capable of doing new things and saying new things. They exert their will; they change their mind. They show up in different, even unexpected places.

Johnson goes on to say that when someone is alive our knowledge with that person takes on many different shapes. We might have written records like we do with people living and dead. We possess memories. But with a person who is alive we are continuing to have input and interaction. New data continues to arrive. Not only that but we can pick up a phone or tap out an email and ask them questions and get answers. We are able to witness how she acts around others. We can observe and interact with their actions in the world. All this varied interactions creates the reality of how knowing a living person is a dynamic, changing, growing process.

But when a person is dead the process comes to a halt. Their deeds have come to an end; no more words will come. However much power and influence they had in life fades quickly away in death. Our ability to know what we can about a person who is dead is the subject of historical investigation and research.

It makes a big difference whether a person is dead or alive. It is a good question to ask of Jesus this Easter.