Easter 2013
When I was a teenager I used to enjoy arguing about religion
with my believing and un-believing friends. I guess I was
also working out what I believed by testing out my ideas on
others.
Arguing about religion remains popular. It can be good
hearted; it can also turn nasty, leading to violence and
discrimination. It can also become polarised; a shouting
match been those who are equally sure they are right and
their opponent wrong.
God is obviously fair game – we can never prove whether or
not God exists – it’s a matter of faith rather than proof. What
surprises me is those who claim Jesus never existed, that he
is a made up, fictional character.
That Jesus lived is a matter of historical fact. History relies on
written evidence. The evidence is there in the admittedly
bias writing of the New Testament but also to be found
elsewhere in neutral or even hostile writings. Of course
there is no absolute proof but no serious scholarly opinion
doubts that Jesus was.
At Easter we can think of two historical near certainties.
One is that there was a death. Jesus died horribly by
crucifixion – public execution. Jesus really died; he was truly
dead and buried.
The second is that his traumatised followers quickly came to
believe and trust that the Jesus who really died now lives.
‘Jesus lives’ to quote the little badges of the born again of my
student days, rather than ‘Jesus lived’. In ‘church-speak’ they
believed in Jesus’ Resurrection, that he was raised by God.
We know that within two decades of Jesus’ death Paul was
handing on what he had received and experienced himself;
appearances of the risen Jesus. (1 Corinthians 15) We also
know from the Gospels that within a few more decades
Christians were sharing the stories of the empty tomb that
have been handed down to us. These stories also say ‘Jesus
lives’.
Rather than examine the biblical texts in detail, asking
important questions of meaning and truth, I’d like us on
Easter Day to think about our faith that ‘Jesus lives’.
I read recently about the idea of memory death. In life we
become concerned about how we will be remembered. Dead,
we are memorialized. Our final resting place becomes the
locus of memories about us. We live on, said the secular
writer, in the memories of our nearest and dearest for a
generation c 25 years. (I think it could be longer – two
generations – but you get the point.) Soon we will be
forgotten, and only then we will be truly dead and buried, as
further generations come and go.
The extraordinary thing about Jesus is that his memory
endures. No memory death for him. Its not that he is
remembered like any other historical figure, Nelson say or
Napoleon. Rather the memory of Jesus’ earthly life is
received and handed on by Christian people.
It is more than memory, the person of Jesus continues to
challenge and confront us in our daily lives. He is knowable,
we can relate to him and he with us. He is present, a living
spiritual reality.
‘Jesus lives’ and through him we worship God, through him
we come to God and God comes to us.
I spoke of two historical facts, that Jesus died and that his
followers quickly shared their experience that he lives. But
Easter is not about history, it is not about remembering the
past, it is about Resurrection, that Jesus who died on the
cross, lives now, calling us to follow him, as we share in
Easter worship.
Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Amen