Easter Sunday 31 March 2024 Rising with Him
Everyone loves a story where the underdog somehow turns the tables on the evil oppressor and a new order of things is established.
The story of Jesus Christ is perhaps the inspiration of all such stories, as with Jesus it looked about as unlikely as it could that He would recover from His passion and death.
His enemies crucified Him, made sure He was dead, put Him in a tomb, rolled a stone across the front; and then put guards on the tomb!
Yet He was walking about shortly after; and gathering his disciples, and generally emerging as the winner of the contest. Loser on Friday; winner on Sunday.
Peter: it was impossible that the grave should hold him (cf Acts 2,22,24).
This is our story as well as His, if we choose to follow Him. His good fortune is ours. His resurrection is promised to us if we maintain a link to Him through faith.
One of Jesus’ prophecies is that the dead shall hear his voice and live (Jn 5,25); His voice alone is enough to wake the dead, either literally dead or figuratively dead in sin. (Jn 5,25). Lazarus, come out (Jn 11, 43) - three words is enough. And similarly did He raise the son of the widow (Lk 7,14); and the young daughter of Jairus (Mk 5,41)
If anyone thinks that God is not listening, look what He can do when the occasion is right.
We are still in the tomb as far as how we feel much of the time. If our faith is weak or vacillating; if we do not trust in God to fulfil His words to us - we will see less result.
And miracles can wear off in their effects on us. The Jews were always asking for miracles and they received a lot of them, but still wanted more.
We need to have a faith which is strong enough to hold up even if nothing appears to be happening. Plenty is either happening or preparing to happen.
We have a lot more evidence than those first disciples.
But our trust is in the Man Himself, rather than appearances.
We can work on our faith, listening, praying, putting beliefs into practice.
We expect to be transformed whenever we encounter the living God, taking every chance to draw closer to Him.
Christ bursts forth from the tomb, life overpowers death, and puts death to the outer darkness.
But the people are still in the grave, in both senses, not yet risen physically, and for many not yet trusting.
We do not fight this alone. There is power in numbers. We need a lot of people to believe this, for their own sake, and to give power to the Church as we seek to bring Christ to the world.
He is Risen, and you can be too - is the essence of the message.
We overcome the inertia of cynicism, scepticism, sloth and all such negative things, And we feel ourselves rising, free from sin, and generally living according to God's will.
The whole world needs to see this event as central to their lives, not just as an eccentric curiosity.
They cannot chain up the good news (2 Tm 2,9). The good news is bigger than we are but we can help by giving it some momentum.
We cannot stop the biological decline that comes with age, but we can do much to sustain and increase our faith, and in that sense we are more alive each time.
Jesus is risen, not just in body, but in relevance, for every corner of our world.
All praise to Him!
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