So, a group of nearly 60 people gathered at the Victoria Embankment outside the Memorial Gates on Easter Sunday morning for the Sunrise Service. Like the people who came running to the tomb on the first Easter Day, they were a mixed bunch with mixed emotions and expectations. But isn’t this what Easter is about? It’s for everyone no matter what state they are in, no matter how strong their faith is. Christ was raised from the dead by the power of God for ALL mankind.
Thinking back to the first Easter Day, we realise how crazy the story is. For a start, the first person to give testimony to Christ’s resurrection was a woman – Mary Magdalene – a woman from whom Jesus had cast out demons (Luke 8:2). Her testimony would not have stood up in a court of law in those days. As for the male disciples of Jesus – they simply discounted her story as fanciful. Even after running to the tomb to take a look for himself, Peter still needed more proof. And we all know about Thomas who missed out on the initial appearance of the risen Jesus to the disciples and how he insisted on a person interview before he would swallow this unlikely tale. In short – they are just like us today. But just like us – everyone was included in the Easter Day story – it was for ALL people.
Proverbs 3v5 says this:
‘Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.’ (KJV)
It may seem odd that God has given us understanding and yet appears to discount it in terms of faith matters. And yet this seems to be the case. For those first disciples experiencing the resurrection, logic and understanding didn’t enter into it. They couldn’t explain it scientifically, they couldn’t relate to it from their own experience, they simply had to believe.
It’s a bit like falling in love. The more you analyse it, the less you experience its full impact. There’s no scientific explanation to it and it’s totally unpredictable – it just happens and the best we can do is enjoy it. We need to accept faith for what it is – a gift from God.
I have often been troubled by the words of Jesus in Mark 11v24
‘Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours’.
It seems on first sight that Jesus offers us a blank cheque in terms of prayer. However, the following verse shows that our answers to prayer are conditioned by our willingness to forgive and be forgiven. Anyone who has banged on heaven’s door in prayer at a time of sickness or hardship and been frustrated by the lack of instant response will struggle with this verse to some degree. But in actual fact, it’s true. The battle for faith and answered prayer is in the mind. The more we analyse things and try to understand them, the less likely we are to receive the answers to our prayers. The key is in believing.
But if there are times when that’s easier said than done, look again at what happened at the moment when Jesus was handing over responsibility to his eleven disciples. As instructed, the disciples went to the mountain in Galilee to meet with Jesus for the final time and there in Matthew 28:17 it says, ‘And when they saw him, they worshipped him: but some doubted.’
But going back to the Sunrise Service, as the leader looked around the gathered congregation he said, ‘The first disciples who came to the tomb on the first Easter Day were a ‘Motley Crew’. And indeed they were and that’s why Easter is so reassuring – it’s for everyone! If Jesus was content with uneducated fishermen, women of questionable backgrounds, brothers with fierce tempers and people who demanded proof prior to believing – then there’s a place for me in this story.
