The resurrection of Jesus has been described as the "best
attested fact of human history." The statement when questioned
elicits the response that the primary proofs for the resurrection
are not verbal statements or circumstantial evidence by certain
facts that bear testimony to its reality in time and place.
The first of them is the Christian Church. On the night when
Jesus was crucified there appeared to be no future for those
who had gathered together to mourn his death, all was gloom
and despair. Their hopes were dashed and He from whom they
have received so much and expected more was gone from them.
But after a few days everything changed, the defeated, dejected
and despairing men and women were suddenly transformed. They
were no longer fearful but fearless, no more disillusioned
and disheartened but thrilled and determined to have everyone
know about the risen Christ. They set the Church, the people
of God, in motion. And these men of limited abilities and
fewer skills, unlettered and little travelled were with their
message to reach the world by themselves but much more by
those who came after them with the good news of Jesus Christ,
the Lord and Saviour of mankind. It was a miracle, the change
in courage and conviction of men who in the physical lifetime
of Jesus has shown few signs of those qualities.
It was to be said of them that they turned the world upside
down. And the church goes on spreading its roots everywhere.
Its very continuance is the constant proof that it defies
the death that falls on man-made societies. There is always
the evidence that whatever its weaknesses and failures it
has a life and a message from God which guarantees its survival.
The transforming power of the Christian faith is always in
evidence in people who have responded by committing themselves
to it. It is now as it has always been so. Changed lives emphasise
the relevance of it in every age and for everyone.
The task of the Church has always been to make Christians,
to bring people to the knowledge of God in Jesus Christ, and
to have them enjoy all the benefits which come from faith
in God.
Where it has that enthusiasm the Church grows in size and
influence, without it it is stunted, lifeless and disregarded.
The second primary fact is the keeping of Sunday, the day
of Resurrection, as the Lord's Day, when Christians meet in
His name to worship God in fellowship one with another. The
seventh day of the week the Jewish Sabbath was replaced, though
not at once by the Christian Sunday, when it became the normal
set day for Christians to meet it marked a singularly important
development.
It meant that Christ and His resurrection were to be set
indelibly by the decisions and that not Judaism but Christianity
was to be the religion of all who had committed theselves
to Christ. And Sunday remains for the Christian the Lord's
Day when in the public place he shows his loyalty to Christ.
Secularism and materialism have changed the appearance of
Sunday for very many but it is for others that special day
of worship and fellowship.
The third primary fact of the resurrection is the existence
and enlargement of the Holy Scriptures. The New Testament
came out of the beliefs, practices and experiences of the
early Christians. It was not to be the Christians book to
replace the Old Testament of the Jews.
On the contrary, it was to confirm that the promsies of God
to the Jews has been kept in the person and work of Jesus
Christ, the man who was God, who lived and died to bring people
into a personal relationship with Him. The New Testament was
to complement and complete the Old Testament.
It is the record of Jesus Christ in profiles of Him, reports
on his preaching and teaching, on His miracles by which some
received sight, speech and movement, and what happened to
Him and because of Him in the days of His flesh, for Christianity
is Christ. His patterns of behaviour, promises and prophesies
are those by which Christians live and on which they depend.
In the Bible there is nourishment for the believer and a
philosophy of life for everyone who studies it. To the Christian
the Bible is God's ordinary means of conversation with them.
The fourth primary proof of the Resurrection is the Holy
Communion whatever description it bears in the Christian communions.
It is at once a joyful communion with the Living Lord and
a remembrance of people's indebtedness to Him. It was never
the remembrance of a victim but the acclamation of a victor.
These proofs are so persuasive that they are enough for courageous
choice and sufficient for all those who see meaning in what
Easter is saying to the world this year again. Easter is joyful
news when much of what we see, hear and read is unpleasant,
tragic even, without the Easter-like ending in which the gloom
of Good Friday becomes the gladness of Easter.
Rev. Canon Dr. S.E. Long
|
