|
|
 |
| Sunday, 31 March 2002 |
 |
|
 |
Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
|
The Mystery of Jesus's Resurrection by Moratuwe Lenard RM It is Easter, the feast of the Glorious Resurrection of Jesus Christ after His death on Good Friday. This Rising of Christ associated with the mystery of our Redemption, is a mystery in itself. It is this Rising of Jesus that gave meaning to His life on Earth as the Son of God. It is the central belief of Christianity. The Resurrection is an unprecedented act in the history of mankind. But its fulfilment as a prophecy made centuries earlier by prophets of the Old Testament was foretold on many occasions. Jesus Himself foretold it to His hearers when He was very much alive, but they hardly understood it. Instances of being raised from death are not without reference in the gospels and even in the pre gospel incidents of the pre Christian era. In I Kings 17.20 we find prophet Elijah giving life to a dead man, the son of a widow. In II Kings we find again Elijah himself being taken up heavenwards even without tasting death. (2/100-11) Jesus in His own lifetime did raise a few who were dead on a couple of occasions. At Nain He raised to life the dead son of a widow (LK. 7/1 1-16). Again he raised the daughter of the leader of the Caparnahum synagogue. (Mth. 9/18-26). But the most stupendous of them was the raising of Lazarus, four days dead and entombed. (Jn. 11/38-45). In the Acts we read of St. Peter giving back life to a dead body at Joppa named Tabitha. (9/36-42). Again we see St. Paul doing it at Traos. (Ibid 20/7-12). But the Resurrection of Jesus is different to all these, in that He Rose sans anybody else's intervention. In fact he foretold it, when he said I have the right to lay down my life and take it over again. In the cases mentioned, it was sympathy that made the life-giver restore the deceased's life. In Jesus's case it was God who raised Him, and Jesus Himself being God or the Son of God as we are used to identifying Him, rose from the dead, as says the Credo of the Christians. It was a victory over sin and death, the consequence of sin. Death was destroyed forever by the Resurrection of Jesus. ("O death where is thy sting?") When we consider that Jesus died on His own accord, and not that he was a victim of people killing, we can understand the mystery of His Resurrection, better. And again, the Risen jesus did not have the body He lost at His death, but a Glorious Body, as St. Paul put it. The genesis of the history of the Resurrection is in the very early chapter of the Bible (Gen. 3/15). Prophets of old like Jeremiah, Amos and Isaiah had predicted this incident Jesus referred to it several times in public and the Synoptics plus John all four evangelists mention it. (Mth. 16/21, 12/40, 17/22, 20.17, 17.9, and 26/32 are examples. Luke has mentioned it twice. (24/25 & 11/29). Mark at ch.8 verse 31 and ch.X verse 45 and John mentioned it as many as 5 times. (10/17, 11/25, 12/23, 14/18 and 16/20-22. The Risen Lord did appear and reappear to many several times. All four evangelists concur on these appearances. (Mt. 288/1-10 Km 16/1-20, Luke 24 and John 20 describe in detail the Risen Lord's experiences with His Apostles and others. St. Paul taught more on the resurrection than any else who had seen and associated the Lord during His life-time. The Resurrection miracle is the core of Christianity. Thanks to Jesus's resurrection, our faith is a resurrection faith and our theism is a Resurrection theism. The empty tomb is eloquent of the rising of Jesus and the defeat of death and its sting. Death has been overcome and the physical death of all people is actually the beginning of life after. It is the Resurrection that has given sanctity to the Cross, which earlier was despised as the instrument of death. The scripture said cursed is he that hangs on a cross, but the Resurrection made it the symbol of Christians after it became the instrument of their salvation. The church's theology, its worship and its liturgy are all Resurrection oriented. The Resurrection has made God the God who raises the dead, as St. Paul said. (Rom. 4/16-17). Hence Christian faith per se is faith in the resurrection. (Ibid 10.9). At. Paul who wrote profusely on the positive side of Jesus's resurrection said that the Cross and its tragedy was transformed into gospel by that Easter miracle. (I Cor 15/1-4) He said all these after his own experience of the Risen Lord on his way to Damascus, that experience which gave Paul a new birth in the spirit. Jesus showed his people that His death was no ordinary death and that He was not an imposter they took Him to be, after His resurrection. It was this Rising that made Him the Son of God, a position that the Jewry of His day, refused to accept. After His Resurrection it was, that He was able to present Himself to the father, and got His ministry as High Priest confirmed, becoming the only mediator of men with their God. If a cynic were to argue that Paul's letter to the Hebrew Christians contains only a solitary reference to the Resurrection, suffice it to explain that single reference nevertheless is presupposed at every turn in the Apostolic argument that the resurrected Jesus is not only the new Melchisedeck, but the appointed judge of the living and the dead. (13/20). Jesus's resurrection is integrated in the mystery of redemption and a guarantee that life does not end in death, but is only the beginning. |
|
News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security Produced by Lake House |
