Osler's Razor

Once again, it has been a remarkable Lent.

There was a new realization for me this year; that the events of Holy Week are truly chaotic.  Jesus and his disciples come into town and take a donkey they don't pay for.  After that, Jesus basically promises that the city will be destroyed, then goes on to tear up the Temple, see his disciples arm themselves, suffer a violent arrest, and then he is tortured and killed.

It's really a disturbing story, in the end.

But then, after he is killed, the real miracle occurs.  He is Risen.

But... that's not all.  Only then does the deepest miracle occur.  Rather than wreak vengeance on his oppressors, he engages in simple, common acts of love.  He speaks the truth to some strangers on the road, and reassures the women who are mourning.  He waits alone on the shore in the very early hours of the morning.  As dawn breaks he goes fishing with his friends, and then makes breakfast.  The story ends there.  There is no climactic battle scene, no hero's parade, because this is something more than a movie.

This passage from John 21 is one of my favorites, because of the simple humanity in it.  Remember, as you read it, that the disciples have just been through that week of chaos, and are encountering someone who had just been tortured and executed:

When they had gone ashore, they saw a charcoal fire there, with lots of fish on it, and bread.... Jesus said to them "come and have breakfast."  Now none of the disciples dared to ask him "who are you?" because they knew it was the Lord.  Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and then did the same with the fish.

Simple, gentle, unexpected acts are the way to reconciliation, peace, and hope, even in the wake of great chaos.  That, too, is part of the example we remember today.