We are meeting at 7:30pm at the Tavern and Galley – see you all then!
This philosophical thought experiment had been around for a long time and I am sure you have heard the question posed before. One of the ideas that it explores is around human perception and whether something only exists if it is perceived by a human being.
As we are a few weeks out from Easter Sunday some of us will have heard familiar stories told at this time of year of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. On Easter Sunday and the weeks since we may have heard of Mary the Tower (Magdalene) as the first witness to the resurrection, of Thomas the Twin (Didymus) and the other disciples meeting the risen Jesus behind locked doors and grieving disciples wandering home with a stranger on the road to Emmaus. All of these stories tell us how humanity perceived the resurrection.
This led me to this reworking of the thought experiment.
If the resurrection had no human witnesses, would it still have saved creation?
So much of Easter is focussed on its impact on you and me. We focus in (and it is important to do this) on how Jesus’ death and resurrection save us, but if we reduce Jesus death to only being about saving us (that is human beings), we wander down a dangerous path. A quote by Ludwig Feuerbach in 1843 helps highlight this danger in his critique of the Christian faith, “Nature, the world, has no value, no interest for Christians. The Christian thinks only of himself and the salvation of his soul.”1
It seems to me that Jesus’ death and resurrection were about freeing all of creation from the effects of sin and death. Paul writes;
…that the creation itself will be set free from its enslavement to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. Romans 8:21 NRSVUE
…and through him (Jesus) God was pleased to reconcile all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross Colossians 1:20 NRSVUE
In these two verses alone we can see Paul understands Jesus’ death and resurrection as impacting all creation and not just the human race.
This brings me back to Easter morning. Who was the first witness to the resurrection of Jesus? It was the stones, the stars, the, sun, the grass, the birds, the trees, all of creation witnessed the resurrection before any human being noticed what had happened.
If a tree falls in a forest with no humans present, does it make a sound? Creations answers: we were never waiting for you to hear it.
And so the resurrection isn’t completed by human witness. Human witness is invited into something already cosmically underway. Humanity isn’t the sole audience the resurrection was performed for. We’re latecomers to a witness already given.
Questions
- What phrases, idioms, sayings or events can you think of that act as a sign to us from nature? Think red sky at night…
- How does it change our perspective to think of creation as the first witness to the resurrection?
- Where else in the Easter story or other bible stories do you notice creation responding — and have you previously read those moments as significant?
- What are the practical consequences of a faith that includes all creation in salvation rather than centring human beings?
- If creation was already witnessing something cosmically underway, what does that suggest about how we should relate to the natural world?
- So much could be written on this issue but there just isn’t space here to dive into how an overemphasis on individual salvation and getting to heaven have skewed our view on other important themes within the bible and within God’s plan for creation.
I needed to write some more about this so I have done so here. You don’t have to read it for the Sunday night but it is some extra thoughts on the above.
Photo by Jeff Wang: https://www.pexels.com/photo/a-fallen-tree-in-the-woods-12653488/
Has been a part of BeachcomberFX since his arrival in the North East in 2014. He is well travelled (at least in the UK) having lived in Manchester, Nottingham, Derbyshire, Southport, Doncaster, Berwick and Edinburgh. Supporter of Newcastle United, will watch any sport.