One lady wrote in to a question and answer forum. "Dear Sirs, Our preacher said on Easter, that Jesus just swooned on the cross and that the disciples nursed Him back to health. What do you think? Sincerely, Bewildered.
Dear Bewildered, Beat your preacher with a cat-of-nine-tails, nail him to a cross; hang him in the sun for 6 hours; run a spear through his side...put him in an airless tomb for 36 hours and see what happens." Sincerely, Charles.
Just last Sunday I read the news that A quarter of people who
describe themselves as Christians in Great Britain do not believe in the
resurrection of Jesus, a survey commissioned by the BBC suggests. What do those
Christians base their beliefs on?
St. Paul writes: “If Christ has not been raised, then our
preaching is in vain; and your Faith is in vain… And if Christ has not
been raised, then your Faith is a delusion and you are still lost in your
sins… But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits
of those who have fallen asleep”(I Cor 15:14, 17, 20). If Jesus
Christ did not rise from the dead, then the Church is a fraud and faith is a
sham. But if Jesus really did rise from the dead, his message is true! Without
the Resurrection, Jesus would have remained forever a good person who had met a
tragic end. All the basic doctrines of Christianity are founded on the
truth of the Resurrection. “Jesus is Lord; He is
risen!” (Rom 10:9) was the
central theme of the kerygma (or
"preaching"), of the apostles.
C.S.Lewis in his Mere Christianity says: I am
trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often
say about Christ.(people often say) ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral
teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must
not say, says Lewis. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things
Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic–on
a level with the man who says he is a poached egg–or else he would be the Devil
of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of
God: or else a madman or something worse…. You can shut Him up for a fool, you
can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; OR, you can fall at His feet and call
Him Lord and God. But let us not come up with any patronizing nonsense about
His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not
intend to.
These are the Reasons why we believe in the
Resurrection of Jesus; (a) Jesus himself testified to his Resurrection from
the dead (Mark 8:31). (b) The tomb was empty on Easter
Sunday(Luke 24:3). (Although the guards claimed (Matthew 28:13) that the
disciples of Jesus had stolen the body, every sensible Jew knew that it was
impossible for the terrified disciples of Jesus to steal the body of Jesus from
a tomb guarded by a 16 member team of armed Roman soldiers). (e) The Jews and the Romans could not disprove
Jesus’ Resurrection by presenting the dead body of Jesus. f) The apostles and early Christians
would not have faced martyrdom if they were not absolutely sure of Jesus’
Resurrection. (g)The Apostle Paul’s conversion from a
persecutor of Christians into a zealous apostle, preaching the Good News of
Jesus throughout much of the Gentile world supports the truth of Jesus’
Resurrection ( Acts 26:15-18). (h)The sheer existence of a thriving,
empire-conquering early Christian Church, bravely facing three centuries of
persecution, supports the truth of the Resurrection claim.
Pastor Rick Calhoun writes, “The Resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead was never meant to be proved but experienced. As
a matter of fact it cannot be proved, as none of us was there. We have to take
the word of others who were. Those early witnesses were very passionate about
their testimonies. Many were to be martyred in defense of their convictions.
But ultimately the resurrection is to be experienced not proved. The most
convincing evidence of the Resurrection of Christ is the transformation of the
people who know Jesus and believe in Him.
Carol was the organist at her church. She was
an outstanding musician, but she did something no organist should ever do. She
overslept on Easter morning and missed the sunrise service.
She was so embarrassed. Of course, the minister
and the church forgave her. They teased her about it a little, but it was done
lovingly and in good fun. However, the next Easter, her phone rang at 5:00 in
the morning. Jolted awake by the loud ringing, she scrambled to answer it. It
was the minister, and he said, "Carol, it's Easter morning! The Lord is
risen! ... And I suggest you do the same!"
The message is clear: We too can be
resurrected. Christ shares his resurrection with us. He rises, and so can we.
We too can have new life. We too can make a new start. We too can rise out of
those tombs that try to imprison us!
Easter reminds us that every Good Friday in
our lives will have an Easter Sunday, and that Jesus will let us share the
power of his Resurrection. Each time we display our love of
others, we share in the Resurrection. Each time we face a betrayal of
trust and, with God’s grace, forgive the betrayer, we share in the Resurrection
of Jesus. Each time we fail in our attempts to ward off temptations – but
keep on trying to overcome them – we share in the Resurrection. Each time
we continue to hope – even when our hope seems unanswered – we share in
the power of Jesus’ Resurrection. In short, the message of Easter is
that nothing can destroy us – not pain, sin, rejection, betrayal or death –
because Christ has conquered all these, and we, too, can conquer them if we put
our Faith and trust in Him.
Resurrection
is Good News, but at the same time, it’s sometimes painful because it
involves death. Before the power of the Resurrection can take hold in our own
lives, we’re called to die to sin, to die to self. We may even have to die to
our own dreams, so that God can do what He wants to do with our lives. As
we celebrate the greatest feast of our faith, let’s ask the Lord for the grace
to come out of darkness in our life to God’s marvelous light of resurrection.
No comments:
Post a Comment