The Lord Has Truly Risen

THE LORD HAS TRULY RISEN

Jn. 20:1-9

I find no difficulty in believing in the Resurrection.  Seeing so many of you in church today, more than on any other Sunday of the year, tells me that you too believe that Jesus rose from the dead on Easter Sunday.  We believe that on Good Friday Jesus was crucified, He died, He was buried and on Easter Sunday He rose from the dead.  We have seen people die but we have never seen anyone rise from the dead, so what makes you and me believe in the Resurrection? 

I find it hard to believe how anyone can disclaim the Resurrection of Christ.  It is not only recorded in the Bible it is mentioned in historical documents.  We were not around when William the Conqueror invaded England in 1066, but we firmly believe this took place, simply because it is recorded in history books and that’s good enough for us.  Yet, there are still people who will not believe it.

I can’t go along with the suggestion of some people who say that His followers made up the story of the Resurrection.  It is true to say that His followers never expected Him to rise from the dead.  Even though Jesus had told them not once but several times that He would be crucified and be put to death, and He had always added that on the third day He would rise.  As soon as He started telling them about His suffering and death, they did not want to hear such talk and so they blocked their ears and did not listen to what followed that He would rise on the third day.  They were like children whose parents tell them that one day they will die and then they will miss them.  Children who love their parents don’t like to hear them speak like that and so they block their ears.  So, we can say truly that the Apostles did not expect Jesus to rise.  Nobody was more astonished than they were!  The Crucifixion distressed and frightened them so much that they hid themselves in the Upper Room.  Two of the women who loved Him so much brought spices to anoint His body after the Sabbath, but when they reached the tomb it was empty.  Mary Magdalene who loved Him so much sobbed her heart out when she found the tomb empty.  She would have done anything to believe that He had risen from the dead.  She thought someone had stolen His body.  What about the Apostle Thomas?  When the ten Apostles together told him that the Lord had risen, he would not believe.  He had to see Him with his own eyes and touch Him with his hands.  This was what he demanded and Jesus accommodated him.  It was then that Thomas made his memorable act of faith, “My Lord and My God”.  That’s how it all happened and how it is recorded in the New Testament. 

So, did Christ’s disciples invent the story of the Resurrection?  Why would they do that?  Why would they spend the rest of their lives preaching something they didn’t believe and eventually die for?  It doesn’t make sense.  All I can say is that they must have been utterly foolish men and women to spend their lives not only preaching about something that never happened but to die a martyr’s death for it.  In fact, I think that one of the greatest proofs that Jesus had risen from the dead is the extraordinary transformation of Jesus’ followers.  From being frightened, timid men, they became courageous and died for the cause of Christ.

Let us look at St. Paul who was the greatest preacher of the Resurrection.  He was an enemy of Christianity.  There was a time when he would have wiped from the face of the earth everyone who followed Christ.  What happened to him to make him travel the length and breadth of the known world preaching Christ crucified and Christ risen from the dead?  Let him tell us himself in his own words.  He wrote in his first letter to the Corinthians, (15:3-8) “Christ died for our sins…on the third day He was raised to life…He appeared to Cephas, and later to the twelve, and next to five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still with us…then He appeared to James, and then to all the Apostles.  Last of all He appeared to me.”  It was Paul who wrote, “If Christ be not risen, then our preaching is in vain.”  Surely this evidence alone is enough to make someone who doubts the Resurrection believe that Christ did rise from the dead?  Yet people who know this still deny this historical fact.  You could claim that there is no single historical event that is better documented than the Resurrection of Christ.

For many of us it was our parents and teachers who taught us that Christ rose from the dead.  We loved and trusted them and believed that they would not lead us astray.  Since then our reason has backed the faith we had in the Resurrection and is something we can never deny. 

Lord Jesus, we thank you today for all He suffered for us and we thank the Father for raising You from the dead.  The Resurrection is the Father’s approval of all You said and claimed.  Let us conclude with an act of faith.  “The Lord has truly risen.  Alleluia.”

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