Today is Easter Sunday. Catholics and Christians across the globe commemorate the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead. It is the very foundation of Christianity. This unique event answers the perennial question humanity raises. Is death the end of everything?
Jesus Christ who rose, defeating death, has given us the crystal-clear answer that life does not end when our bodies die. Jesus rose from the dead, and that confirms the validity of everything he had said about Himself, about the meaning of life, and about our destiny after death. Jesus’ followers wrote that he appeared to them alive after His crucifixion and burial. They claimed not only to have seen him, but also to have eaten with him, to have touched him, and to have spent 40 days with him. St. Thomas did not take the words of the rest of the Apostles when said that Jesus had visited them.
Amazing fact
The Gospels record Thomas saying that he would only believe that Jesus has risen from the dead by touching his wounds. In the midst of these Christ appear to the Apostle including Thomas and Christ asked Thomas to touch his wounds. Instead, Thomas falls on his knees and with shouts of joy he venerates Him saying “My Lord” and “ My God.” This manifests well that Jesus crucified has risen from the dead and it is certain like any other historical fact. There is no shadow of a doubt. Easter Sunday shows the way for the followers of Christ to keep their trust in the Risen Lord. Jesus’ resurrection is the most amazing fact in all human history.
Truth will prevail
This Sunday after four years of the tragic experience Sri Lankans had on Easter Sunday 2019, gives them all the courage to stand firm in their faith and believe that God is, with every Sri Lankan and that they need not fear -“the Truth will Prevail”.
Jesus has the perfect answer to our question. Jesus indeed had risen from the dead and His resurrection has the answers regarding the purpose of life and what awaits us after death. If Jesus did not rise from the dead, the resurrection account is false, then Christianity is founded on a lie. Bible Scholars affirm the Resurrection of Christ Jesus on the evidence recorded in the Gospels. “The claim of resurrection is a very vital factor to Christianity. As St. Paul states, “If Christ did not rise from the dead, our faith is false”. Easter Sunday reminds us all that Christianity is alive to this day because Jesus Christ rose from the dead as He promised and proclaimed.
John Warwick Montgomery, a legal scholar had said: In AD 56, the Apostle Paul wrote that more than 500 people had seen the Resurrected Jesus and that most of them were still alive (1 Corinthians 15, 6 and following). It is beyond the bounds of credibility that the early Christians could have fabricated such a story and then preached it among those who could have easily disproved it by simply producing the body of Jesus. ”
Bible scholars Geisler and Turek agree: “If the resurrection had not taken place, why would the apostle Paul have given such a list of supposed witnesses? He would have immediately lost all credibility with his Corinthian readers by lying so brazenly.
The events in Jesus’ earthly life give the followers a very strong backing to live their faith in the midst of all calamity. The miracles Jesus Christ performed, bringing back to life, the dead. There are three specific accounts narrated by the Gospel writers. The story of Lazarus is one such account.
Jesus was in Bethlehem when news came to Him, about the death of his friend Lazarus in Bethany. The town of Bethany is about two miles from Jerusalem. Jesus while reaching the house of Lazarus, Martha, sister of Lazarus told Jesus that Lazarus, His buddy had died four days ago. Jesus told Martha that ‘her brother would rise again’. Martha in response said that she knew well that her brother would rise on the last day.
The stunning statement Jesus Christ made twenty centuries ago, in answering her, reverberates in our minds when reading the particular paragraph in the Gospel of St. John. What Jesus Christ the Redeemer of humanity told Martha, the sister of Lazarus as reported in the Gospel of St. John, when she posed the question to Jesus, is a question we all tend to ask endlessly at the death of our loved ones: Is death the end?
Jesus told Martha: “I am the Resurrection and the Life. He who believes in Me will live, even if he were dead. Do you believe it? Martha in responding affirms her faith; that she does indeed believe. “Yes, Lord. I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world”. She is the second person to declare using such terminology after Nathanael. She recognises Jesus as the Son of God. It is for the first time that someone equates Jesus, with the ‘Messiah’ and the ‘Son of God’.
The event successfully ends with Lazarus rising from the dead over the command of Jesus: Jesus with the rest walked up to the graveyard and asked to remove the stone covering the tomb, while Martha objected to it, saying there would be a bad smell - odour and Jesus reminded what He had foretold her. In a loud voice Jesus called: “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man Lazarus wrapped with strips of linen, all over, came out. Jesus asked those present to take off the grave clothes and allow him to go.”
The events and miracles that took place when Christ was walking on earth with the crowd prove beyond any doubt that God is the Master and He will raise humanity from the dead to live to eternity. “According to the eyewitnesses closest to Jesus, He demonstrated His power over death by rising from the dead, after being crucified and buried for three days. It is this belief that has brought hope to Christians for well over 2,000 years.
We also read in the Gospel of St. Mark, about the miracle Jesus Christ performed in raising Jairus’ daughter. Jairus, one of the elders, was a very influential man in Capernaum. He goes to Jesus with his grief and pleaded with Jesus to heal his daughter almost dying. He goes to Jesus in the hope that his child might be spared for him. Jairus manifested his faith by going to Jesus and believing in His power to heal the sick child. Trembling Jairus told Jesus that his little daughter lay at the point of death - but if only Jesus would come and lay His hands on her, she would not die.
Unexpected interruption
Jesus is always quick to resolve, and respond to pleads; hearing the cry of human distress. Jesus at once went with Jairus. But there was an unexpected interruption, Gospel records. A poor woman suffering a long time with sickness goes after Jesus in secret and touched the hem of His garment with her trembling fingers unnoticed by the rest. There was a pleading, a prayer in her touch, a cry of her heart and Jesus heard that cry. The woman strongly believed that the one passing by had the power to heal her. With the very touch of the fringe of His garment, instantly healing flowed from Jesus to the sick woman and she was cured.
That was all, the woman wanted, and with that, she was to move/slip away but she could not do so as Jesus called her. “Who touched My clothes?” He never has failed to do one act of love - because He is in the midst of another. She went down and touching His feet let out her heart. She thus received salvation as well as physical healing. Christ has a heart of sympathy and love - which will lead Him to take a tender interest in every need or sorrow of ours and to help us in the best way. Our need is our strongest claim on Him. That is the message of Easter that celebrates the Resurrection of Christ. Triumph over death. Death where is thy sting......?
What occurred on His way, delayed in going to Jairus house. The child had died before Jesus reached Jairus’ home. Jairus was told, “not to trouble the Master. Your daughter is dead.” hearing what has been said the Gospel reports that Jesus had comforted Jairus: “Do not be afraid, only believe.” Jesus went on with Jairus and gave back the child to her parents, alive.
Then the other account of raising from the dead is the raising of the son of the widow of Nain (Naim). Jesus was around Nain (Naim) a burial procession was on. The body taken on procession was of a young man, the only son of a widowed mother. The mother of the dead young man was in the procession with the rest of the women and she was weeping. Jesus Christ saw this. Christ Jesus moved very much seeing the weeping mother. Jesus told her: “do not weep” and walked up to the procession, touched the coffin, and said: “Young man, I say to you, arise!” And the young man rose, sat up, and began to talk. Jesus gave him back to his mother while the pallbearers stood still. The stunted crowd; the witnesses to what had happened in their very own eyes with owe began praising God, saying: “A great Prophet has risen among us”, and “God has visited His people”.
We read in the Gospels that the dead, rose from their graves when Jesus took His last breath on the Cross. No historian has found this, false. That was a fact, the people saw and experienced.
Life is everlasting
Although there are people who fail to share the hope of resurrection; the life after death, Christianity will continue to spread to every corner as Jesus Christ predicted. The responsibility lies in the believers to spread the message that Life is everlasting; death is the only way to enter eternity.
Former Nixon government ‘axe man’ Chuck Colson, implicated in the Watergate scandal, outlined how many people found it difficult to sustain the lie for an extended period of time. “I know the resurrection is a fact, and Watergate proved it to me. How? Because 12 men testified that they had seen Jesus raised from the dead, and then proclaimed this truth for 40 years, never once denying it.
Each in turn was beaten, tortured, stoned, and thrown into prison. They couldn’t have endured it if it wasn’t true. Watergate involved 12 of the most powerful men in the world—and they were unable to sustain a lie for three weeks. Are you telling me that 12 apostles were able to sustain a lie for 40 years? Absolutely impossible. ”
Those who claim to know everything under the Sun need to think hard about what has happened to the people who had no belief at all in God as the loving Creator of humanity who is on watch, every step man takes. God loves and respects Freedom. Enjoying freedom does not allow one to shun the naked truth. We are free and freedom means heavy responsibility. God has given everyone an opportunity to return to Him, and to accept Him.
God is the loving father that awaits prodigal sons to return. But man is free. Our forefathers have tasted the consequences of extreme freedom. One must remember whether one believes or not God is, and one must remember that the human mind cannot understand everything under the sun. Our capacity to grasp is very much limited. May the Risen Lord enlighten everyone to believe in Him; in His Merciful Love and May God paves the way to live our lives sharing ourselves with others.