Ranges Community Church

I have always found the gospel accounts of the resurrection rather illusive, disappointing and bewildering. I felt the same after the latest installment of the Indiana Jones series, it left me with a feeling of ‘is that it! . With movies there is always to much hype, this is usually followed by inevitable disappointment, but with the resurrection there is no hype whatsoever, yet it leaves you with the same feeling ‘is that it’ to make matter worse it is the only ‘window of opportunity’ available to us.

Think about it, this is the most significant event in all of human history. One could argue that people have come back from the dead before, in fact in Roman and Greek mythology stories of people (in particular emperors!) coming back from the dead were common, so this is nothing out of the ordinary, but for someone to be resurrected from the dead, this is an entirely different story, bearing in mind that the biblical definition of resurrection is distinctly different from the resuscitation of Lazarus or Jarius.

The gospel accounts do not provide anything that could be described as overwhelming or conclusive; there appear to be large chunks of missing information, this has always left me feeling a little frustrated, a little like someone looking at a beautiful sunset for the first time through a keyhole, and then attempting to describe the picture to me

Since reading N T Wrights book Resurrection and the Son of God I’m starting to see things a little different.

I shudder to think what would have happened if Jesus had been crucified in the modern era, it would have been information overload, and ultimately overkill, buried in an avalanche of words.

As westerners we don’t handle unfinished stories or doubt and uncertainty all that well, we feel that everything needs to be explained in absolute terms, that everything needs to be ‘nailed down’ everything needs to be secured like wandering cargo in a violent storm, and under no circumstance should it every be prized from this position again.

Read the resurrection accounts a few times, without western goggles and a different picture emerges.

The disciples had absolutely no context with which to place this experience words failed them completely (fortunately for us!). They never at anytime resorted to ‘hype’ or ‘poetic license’ they were in a very real sense completely overwhelmed, floored, stunned, in a place of frozen disbelief. They were so convinced of its reality, the burden of truth weighed so heavy upon them, the implications of this event were so mind boggling as to leave them in a state of stunned disbelief, a little like a stunned mullet.

The effect of the resurrection was not to produce a western sanguine like response, with heaps of words, mindless endless rhetoric, but to leave them shaky and uncertain, one where the senses of sight and sound needed to be questioned, what was really needed was to sit in silence and ponder the event, profound truth and revelation as with Daniel and Paul will leave one in a somber melancholic state, where the mind is left reeling in its wake, it takes time for our limited understanding to catch up with a new reality.

Their senses were overloaded with sights and sounds never heard of seen before.
When prophets encountered God in the Old Testament they were left silent and speechless needing much time to reflect on the event.

It becomes apparent that the disciples felt no urge to ‘prove his resurrection’

Read the accounts slowly and deliberately, and if nothing else, one is taken back in time to the place and event where words failed at every level.

This is the place where faith becomes a priceless asset and words are no longer useful

The resurrection accounts captured the event in a very real way, the feelings of sacred awe recorded almost by accident, this in itself creates a ring of truth. I had this same feeling last year when walking into Canterbury cathedral, the only thing I could say was wow! and this is amazing!  Try copying these words down for posterity they would leave one with the same sense of incompletion. Within this context words were not needed words were somewhat futile and inadequate, the only thing that seemed appropriate was to sit and ponder and take in the incredible sights, non of this by the way could have been conveyed through mere words, this in a very small way is the call of the empty tomb.

To dismiss the event due to its flawed description and its embarrassingly simple explanation is to miss the journey of the spirit.

Interwoven within these simple lines is the reality and power of the resurrection, to miss this is to miss the opportunity where we are lead by the hand by Gods spirit, to once again become first hand witnesses, this is no place for the casual observer, no place for consumerist miracle seekers, a little like tourists ticking of boxes on there ‘must see list’. This is the place of the spirit, where those willing to trust what can never be proven by words, are taken back in time to the event. Little wonder that Jesus said ‘blessed are they who believe but have not seen