As Mary kneels to look into the tomb, the angels ask:
Woman, why do you weep?
Someone has taken away my master's body' she says.
In her grief, she does not recognise the man who asks her:
Woman, why do you weep?
Give me the body back, she says, let me do this one last task of love.
Mary!
She runs to tell the others, 'He is risen!'
On
Good Friday the incredible tale emerged of a
sailor who
was rescued after spending two months lost at sea surviving on raw
fish and rainwater. Louis Jordan, 37, said putting his clothes in the
sea helped catch fish, and he thanked God for saving him when he was
down to his last drops of water. It sounds too implausible to be
true, but no-one seriously doubts him because it is the only
explanation that fits the facts. Jordan
could hardly have faked being found sitting on the upturned hull of
his boat completely by chance, and he was reported missing in
January! In the immortal words of Sherlock Holmes, When
you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however
improbable, must be the truth. So
many incredible things have happened throughout history but by far
the most incredible, most controversial and disputed event in
history, is the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Sometimes
you hear famous people say on the radio or TV what a wonderful
ethical teacher Jesus was, and how great the Sermon on the Mount is
as a set of moral values. At the moment many of the leaders of the
political parties have been giving interviews or making declarations
in which they declare how they endorse Christian moral values, even
if they are not Christians. Yet what was at the heart of Christianity
from its earliest days when Peter spoke to the crowds at Pentecost,
through the book of Acts, the epistles of Paul and the whole of
church history is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Resurrection
is the reason the church is about more than a set of ethical
standards, more than a social justice movement.
Occasionally it is said that the New
Testament was written hundreds of years after the events occured. However, in
fact all biblical scholars believe that the earliest Christian
documents, the epistles of Paul, were written only around 20 years
after the death of Christ. And if you flick through them you will
realise they are permeated by references to the resurrection.This is Paul's most detailed description of his beliefs. For
what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that
Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
that
he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the
Scriptures,
and
that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve.
After
that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the
same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen
asleep.
Then
he appeared to James, then to all the apostles,
and
last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born. (1 Cor 15: 3 – 5, NIV) .Scholars
believe this was an early form of creed, one that may have dates from
very early in the history of Christianity. The resurrection accounts
cannot be written off a a later invention. They were real events that happened to real people and we have two facts to explain: undoubtedly Jesus died, and undoubtedly he was seen by too many people to it to have been a hallucination. To return
to the Sherlock Holmes quote: When you have eliminated the
impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.
This
is the central core of our faith: our belief in the Resurrected
Christ. And we believe this is not a one-off event either; it is Christ's resurrection that
guarantees that we too have a future beyond the grave. This is
the fact that turned around the lives of Paul and the other early
disciples, that made them give up their lives for the resurrected
Lord, that has brought new life to millions throughout the millennia,
and continues to do so today.
