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April 2003, Page 1.
Index of articles.
Vicar's Letters:
index,
Christmas,
Read Mark,
Zimbabwe,
Basics in Lent,
Resurrection.
Who to vote for?
In this issue:
(April 2003)
Vicar's letter,
Holywell,
Peace,
A working faith.
Jesus and Anastasia
When St Paul first told the people in Athens about Jesus, they didn’t get what he was on about.
“What is this babbler trying to say?” asked some.
“He seems to be on about foreign gods,” said others. (Acts 17:18)
Why ‘gods’, not ‘god’?
They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection (same verse). Not very enlightening in English, but the Greek word for “resurrection“ is ”anastasia“, which was and is a girl’s name. They must have thought Paul was on about two gods: Jesus and Anastasia.
This verse tells us three things about the basics of the Christian Gospel - the “good news“:
(1) It’s all about Jesus. If it hasn’t got Jesus in it, then it’s not really properly Christian. The first followers of Jesus earned the nickname “Christians” because they were always going on about the Christ - Jesus. Nowadays many people imagine you can be a Christian without having to mention Jesus. No you can’t - the bit about Jesus was the basic first bit which Paul told people - without Jesus the rest didn’t make sense.
(2) It’s about the resurrection of Jesus. People sometimes tell me “Jesus was a good teacher, and we ought to follow what he said”. That’s true, but it’s not the basic truth. If Jesus was just a good teacher, we could pick and choose from his ideas, like we do with lots of other things we hear. There would be no proof that he was right, and no reason to follow him alone. But Jesus is different from other teachers, both modern ones like Ghandi or Luther King, and ancient ones like Moses or Ezra or Mohammed. The difference is that God raised him from the dead. If you want to know about eternal life, then ask the one person who has been there and knows.
(3) People easily got the wrong end of the stick. In Paul’s day they listened with half an ear - and they still do. Many people have not really ever realized that Jesus really did rise again, even though the evidence is plain to see if anyone goes into it for themselves. This Easter I invite you to consider it afresh, believe it as good news for you personally, let it sink in, and pass it on to others who haven’t twigged it yet.
John Hartley