SPECTAT mE OR
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A NECESSARY TRUTH
Afew weeks ago, Jeremy Bowen, the television reporter, claimed to have reconstructed the face of Christ. There was a very small kerfuffle. What would have happened if he had unearthed not the face but the skull — the bones of the dead Jesus of Nazareth? We can say without fear of contradiction that there would have been a very large kerfuffle indeed. Mr Bowen would have been translated from a mere hack into the possessor of the scoop of the Millennium, hailed as the greatest journalist since, some would say, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. But the rise of Mr Bowen would be as nothing compared to the fall of Jesus Christ. The death of the carpenter from Galilee would be the end of the Easter story.
When a great ship goes down, the reactions of those on board vary. Some dash manfully for the lifeboats. Others panic and rush around in confusion, tearing at themselves and others in their frenzy. Still others turn silently away in despair, or in what seems to be a strange last peace. Some put women and children first, and others put them last. So it would be within that creaking tinie-barnacled barque, the Christian Church, at the news that Christ was dead. Some of those on board would refuse to believe it: all over the world, worshippers of every conceivable variety would denounce Mr Bowen as a stooge of Satan, or the helpless tool of a Zionist-Masonic-Communist plot. Others, especially in America, would commit mass suicide, or prepare to be transported by aliens to another planet, or turn to the Book of Mormon, or blow the family fortune on a stupendously orgiastic visit to Las Vegas. People would turn from the Son of Man to a son of man: George W. Bush would be required to make a statement — or, as he would call it, a `resurreaction'.
Others still would declare that they never had much confidence in the old ship in the first place, and would carry on as usual. These might include distinguished figures in the Church of England, who would say that Jesus remains alive in a very real sense (though, unfortunately. not in the most real sense of all). Dr Ian Paisley would blame Dublin, Anne Robinson would dismiss the Pope as the weakest link'. The Daily Mail would run a leader-page article by a carrotheaded right-wing columnist entitled 'Just who does this Jesus think he is?'. Tony Blair would say that he 'still, like, you know, really sort of believes', but would vote for more abortion and cloning (so no change there). Thought for the Day on Radio Four's Today programme would consist of well-meaning homilies about the fur trade and ethical investment (so not much change there, either). Ann Widdecombe, who would be one of the last to acknowledge the truth of Bowen's discovery, would have to divert her spiritual energies into the pleasures of the Glastonbury festival, or carrying crystals in her handbag. Richard Dawkins. the Darwinist biology professor,
would become, if anything, even more insufferable.
The Jewish people would find themselves delivering, after centuries of Christian persecution, a grim three-word riposte: 'Told you so'. There would be some high-profile conversions to Judaism, including Cliff Richard, the Irish singer Dana and the editor of the Daily Telegraph, but the real winner would be Islam (already the world's fastest-growing religion). The construction of mosques in Britain would continue apace. Polly Toynbee would denounce the rising religion in the Guardian, and be imprisoned for institutional racism. In time, Islam would come to dominate Africa, central Asia and the Far East. Weird pseudoChristian cults, like the Montanists who so disturbed the early Christian Church, would survive in pockets. of America, Europe and especially Latin America, as false messiahs would quickly rise and fall. But the religious future of humankind would probably be fought out between Islam on the one hand and the more Westernised forms of Buddhism on the other (together with astrology, palmistry, meditation, aromatherapy, the cult of health and so on).
All this is just how it should be, if the Resurrection never took place. In the words of St Paul, 'If the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised, If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are all in your sins.' The triumph of life over death is the heart of the Easter story; a man dies upon a cross but his tomb is found empty. Were the broken bones of the crucified Jesus to be grubbed up, there would still be a case for Christianity as a cultural artefact, as a matchless fount of history, government, charity, art and civilisation. What, though, would be the point of it? If Jesus didn't rise from the dead, he was simply a good man and a wise teacher. But the story of Judaism is full of fine people, and it would surely be unbearable to worship one on the basis of a lie. The world turns on the truth of the Resurrection. 'But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.'
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