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Focus
Focus is the bi-monthly magazine of Brislington United Reformed Church.
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Pastoral Letter
Easter 2006
Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. (Luke 24:5) |
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| When someone says: “close your eyes and hold out your hands,” you know you’re in
for a pleasant surprise. And it doesn’t matter what age we are we can all experience that same dizzy, childlike feeling of excitement as we wait in eager expectation for the surprise to be revealed. “What might it be?” we wonder as we stretch out our arms and wait for whatever it is to be dropped into our open hands. And when it is sometimes the weight, the feel or the shape of it immediately gives the game away while on other occasions we can’t decide and the mystery lingers on until we’re told to: “open your eyes” and see it for ourselves. And the Resurrection is a bit like that too. We live very much in a
sceptical, scientific age in which very little is accepted these days at face value without being backed up by hard, verifiable evidence. And throughout the ages people have questioned and probed, examined and researched the Resurrection in an attempt to either explain it or refute it altogether. But they fail and will continue to fail because they make the mistake of trying to understand the Resurrection intellectually as if some rational explanation must be found. But there is simply nothing in history to measure it against for it was, and remains, a unique event. This may be why rather than admit that it did happen some critics opt for the rather lame excuse that Jesus didn’t actually die but swooned in the tomb and then later recovered. This may serve to get them off the hook intellectually but it is hardly a credible explanation; in fact it is a rather thin and most unsatisfactory conclusion. Why? Well, for one thing it fails to take account of the thoroughness of the Roman system of punishment. The Romans crucified many hundreds of people and knew exactly how to dispose of people in the most barbaric way. Jesus died all right and in a very brutal manner. But more to the point what underlies much scepticism is the fact that the Resurrection takes us to the very limit of human understanding and into the realms of the miraculous and this is problematic for some. But as the New Testament shows so clearly and convincingly Jesus, after being put to death by the Romans in such a brutal way, was seen alive again just a few days later by a whole range of people. People who have left their eye witness accounts for us to read and mull over in the New Testament. And to those who question the accuracy of those eye witness accounts I would say this. Just a few short months ago several of the few remaining veterans of the First World War appeared on TV recounting their memories of that conflict. And some of those recollections were told with such feeling and passion that few would doubt the accuracy of them even though they occurred over 80 years ago. And of course there are ways of independently verifying those accounts to satisfy the more sceptical amongst us. Yet the earliest gospels were written down in a much shorter period than 80 years after the Resurrection and in an age when memories were even better than they are today. So might I suggest an approach to the Resurrection that might help all of us, sceptics and doubters included, to set aside our prejudices and in-built resistance to a wonderfully liberating truth. Simply close your eyes and hold out your hands and “receive” the Resurrection in faith from God as his unique “gift” to you (his surprise) - for that is the only way to receive it. |
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And when you do not only will it change your life for ever but you will be set free to live your own “resurrection” life through the power of the risen Lord living in you. Jesus, who rose from the dead triumphant that we too might have abundant and never ending life. And that’s a “surprise” worth holding your hands out for. Happy Easter.
In Jesus’ name
Derek Marsh
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"Derek Marsh Assembly Accredited
Lay Preacher" |
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