A series of short reflections for Easter

Too early to tell

Paul Bickley is Research Fellow at Theos

There is a story that in 1972 Chinese premier Zhou Enlai was asked if he thought the French Revolution was a success: “Too early to tell”, he was said to have replied.

Of course, it’s not true. Actually, Zhou Enlai was asked if the French student protests of 1968 were a success. Chas Freeman, a US diplomat who overheard the comment, said in his memoirs that the misunderstanding was “too delicious to correct”, and so it is. And whenever we need reminding that we must take the long view, this quote serves better than any other.

I think the followers of Jesus would have understood. It is impossible to understand the meaning of the moment from the inside. There is irony, even humour, in Jesus’ encounter with two sad disciples on the road to Emmaus:

He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?”

They stood still, their faces downcast. One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, “Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?”

“What things?” he asked.

As if he didn’t know.

Jesus seems to think they should have known what was really going on too, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!” As I read it, he’s saying that with a twinkle in his eye. How could they anticipate that the most tragic failure and defeat — their nadir — would in the future be celebrated by billions as the peak of history itself, and a paradigm-shifting prospect that a moment of weakness and vulnerability can be a victory, and that it could only be celebrated as such because it truly did plumb the depths of human misery.

I don’t mean to be callous. Few of the individual tragedies unfolding right now will be subsequently understood as moments of special meaning or growth. There is hope though — an Easter hope — that we might meet someone on the journey who knows what’s happening better than we do.

Image: Artem and Olga Sapegin/shutterstock.com