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April 2007, Page 1.
Index of articles:
by subject,
by date.
In this issue:
(April 2007)
Christ is risen,
Prayer,
Question,
Song.
Christ is risen, ker-pow?
Superman lies dead on the ground, having been slain by the evil Zurg. But somehow, the kryptonite particles won’t leave him alone. Emanating from the local MOT garage, they are guided into his body by mysterious theta radiation, and hey-presto, Mr Incredible stands on his feet again! (Or maybe it was because of the spinach Olive Oyle managed to pour into his mouth as he took his dying breath?)
Or maybe I’ve been seeing too many sci-fi films, comic strips and TV shows?
As David Jenkins (once Bishop of Durham) has said: “The Resurrection of Jesus was not merely a conjouring trick with bones.” And I agree about that: it was far more!
Does it matter?
Behind that statement was the idea that it doesn’t matter whether the resurrection really happened or not. The point of the story is to assure us that the power which moved in Jesus can move in us as well - but the story itself might be just picture language. I disagree.
A parable - a story like the Good Samaritan - is supposed to tell you what you should do, and I agree it doesn’t matter whether it happened or not. But a story about what God will do to take care of you is quite different: it makes a huge difference to us whether stories of life beyond the grave are true or false.
Did it happen?
This is the central question we all have to wrestle with. At college I met people who challenged me to explain the historical documents away somehow. Did Jesus not die, but just faint? Did the disciples all visit the wrong tomb? Did they tell the story knowing it was a pack of lies? Did they all suffer from a mass delusion? Were they misled by a confidence trick? Were the writings in the New Testament changed later? When I looked into these questions I became convinced that the only explanation was that Jesus really did rise again from the dead.
What does it mean for us?
The raising of a man from being dead to being alive again is obviously not normal. If it really happened, it proves God exists and gets involved in our world. It proves Jesus was right in what he had been saying. It proves Jesus is somebody special. It proves we ought to take notice of what he said. It also proves there’s life beyond the grave. In fact, it’s probably the biggest proof we’ll ever have to reckon with.
John Hartley