St Luke's Church Eccleshill - Articles from "The Link"

Alive, not just in heaven

"I have seen the Lord,"
said Mary to the_eleven:
she told them all that he had said,
for he was risen from the dead.
But they did not believe her word.
They thought he'd simply gone to heaven.

"We have seen the Lord,"
to Thomas from the_eleven.
"I'll not believe it," he replied,
"until I see his hands and side.
How can I take another's word
that he is here, not just in heaven?"

"Peter, it's the Lord."
The fishermen, all seven,
could hear him calling from the shore,
inviting them to fish for more:
they let down nets, obeyed his word,
and knew him there, not just in heaven.

"Saul, I am the Lord,
against whom you have striven.
Get up, for I have chosen you,
and you'll be told what you must do:
to all the world I'll spread my word,
for I am here, not just in heaven."

"Jesus Christ is Lord."
This faith we have been given.
Two thousand years since then are gone,
but millions since have known God's Son:
and we today believe this word
of Christ alive, not just in heaven.

This year I asked myself about hymns for Easter. There are a couple of well-known favourites: ‘Jesus Christ is risen today’, and ‘Thine be the glory’. There are a few old-fashioned sound hymns which haven’t really proved lively enough for the modern generation, and there are a few modern songs. Easter has nothing like the huge range of songs that Christmas has.

So I decided to try to write a few: songs about Jesus being risen from the dead and alive today. And so I had to ask: What does ‘Jesus is alive’ mean now?

I’ve visited many bereaved people who have told me that although their loved-one has gone, they can still feel his/her presence with them in daily life. It’s like they’re there but invisible. Is that all we mean when we talk about Jesus being alive?

Or is Jesus’ presence more than the presence of a loved one in a lonely heart? The bible draws a big contrast between what’s happened to Jesus and what has happened to believers who die. Jesus was raised. Christians who die are still waiting for their resurrection. We say they “go to heaven”, but the time when we shall meet them with the Lord is still to come.

And that question led me to these lines, based on incidents in John 20-21 and Acts 9. The disciples didn’t have any real difficulty believing in the resurrection - the Pharisees of the time believed it anyway. They did have a problem believing that Jesus had been raised, and was really with them now. Have you grasped that Jesus is with you now, and not just in heaven?

John Hartley