It is not Jesus’ death that transforms but his life–a love life that had the power to persist beyond death, as the stories of the resurrection mysteriously suggest. Granted, that mystery has been almost ruined by dogmatic “I believes.” But for those with ears to hear afresh–the purpose of a Christian life is not whatever purpose it entails. The purpose is a way, a life and a truth. It will entail sacrifices of various kinds, and sometimes, in the face of Pontious power, terrifying ones. But they are never the purpose. They are the risk. No more than Jesus did Gahndi, King or Romero want or seek to die. Even when they could predict their imminent death, as each seems to have done, they were not choosing to die but to persist in love. Love “risks the adventure.”

–Catherine Keller

Painting by Lena Wolff

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