On Easter Sunday of 1917, Karl Barth preached on Colossians
2:15, “He disarmed the rulers and authorities
and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in it.”
In this scripture, Barth saw the
resurrection of Christ as the event that turned the tables and disarmed worldly
powers.
Barth asked “If God is, then good is no
longer difficult and evil no longer frightening. If God is, then sin is no
longer damned but forgiven. If God is, then what is and what can Mammon, this
murder of souls be? If God is, then what is the “experience” and what are the
social and economic conditions of this world? If God is, then how small and
unimportant become the human things that separate us from one another.”
Barth dared to ask these questions in the
midst of the darkest hours of the Great War, the day after the United States
entered the fray, in a month the British called “Bloody April”.
If, in the midst of this carnage, Barth
could dare to ask, “If God…” how can we learn to look past the temporal powers
of the world to the divine power of Jesus Christ? How can we look past the
things that are “small and unimportant” and find unity in Christ?
