In The Poetics Aristotle makes the claim that a good story —a really good story— must satisfy two conditions that seem mutually exclusive:
a good story must satisfy the hopes and anticipations which it cultivates in us.
AND a good story must surprise us; it cannot merely conclude or resolve; we can’t see it coming.
Think of the way we critique movies: we can’t stand it when the ending is so obvious and so unimaginative (“Oh I knew who the murderer was from the first scene”) but we also cant bear to suffer through plot holes —those aren’t surprises, they’re dodges from the difficulties of the task of story-telling (“if Buzz Lightyear really thinks he’s an astronaut and not a toy, why does he pretend to be a toy when Andy walks in the room?”).
The great stories, the epoch-outlasting, culture-transcending, meta-narrative-shaping stories share this unique quality: they satisfy our expectations even as they surpass them: The Odyssey, the Lord of the Rings, Joe Vs. the Volcano, ‘The Apology of Socrates’, “In a Bamboo Grove,” the canticle of the El Cid, etc.
But among all the great stories that meet Aristotle’s criteria nothing compares to Resurrection of Jesus Christ on the first Easter. The way it so perfectly satisfies all the Law and the Prophets, the way it draws all the narrative threads and symbols into a single grand masterpiece, the way it truly fulfills the hope of all the earth is complimented by the way it seems to do this impossibly.
This Galilean (which is Pharisee and Sadducee dg-whistle code for “Samaritan”) is the heir to the throne of David in Judea?
This rabbi is the king of the world?
This son of Mary and son of Joseph is fully God?
This rough mendicant is the Logos? The Word who was with the Father in the beginning?
This ignominious death is The Great Victory over Death?
This…?
C.S. Lewis describes the sensation of the good news of the Gospel as being “too good” and “too real.” So it is. It is the kind of story that Aristotle likely thought only could exist in an ideal form —which means aspirational for us humans. “My that would be something but it couldn’t ever actually happen…. don’t bend the rules back on themselves” he might say if he were to hear the Gospel proclaimed to him.
But this is just the point, and the proof, of the Gospel: the Ideal Form has become Historical Fact. Heaven and Earth have met and kissed each other (Ps 85). The Risen Jesus is not content to satisfy Aristotle’s criteria, he is the Criterion Himself.