Reflecting on this resurrection

God can bring good out of evil; God can bring love out of hate; and hope out of despair.

For many, Easter is over. For many organized church denominations, we are still celebrating events surrounding the resurrection of Jesus. What a day that was! Jesus, whom his friends, his family, and indeed, all of Jerusalem, thought dead, was raised to life. Not only raised to life but began to appear to people.

One of the things that strikes me about that resurrection day, is that, in spite of all that the disciples had seen Jesus do, from healing the sick, calming the storms, and telling the disciples about how he would die and rise again, no one was there to witness the event.

Not one expected it to happen. Not one of them even hoped after Jesus was placed in the tomb, to ever see him again. No one stood by the tomb. No one waited to see if he would rise.

You see, their hopes had died, their convictions had died, and they ended up hiding in the fear that if caught, they would be treated the same way.

So praise God! The resurrection happened! That event raised the faith of the disciples and brought to life again their dead convictions and their hope restored. It now gave the disciples the courage, the audacity, the ability to proclaim the Easter message which carries through to this day. They came out of the room where they had huddled in fear and went to the ends of the earth and created a mighty church, despite the efforts of kings and emperors to stamp it out of existence.

The resurrection is the center or heart of our faith, the foundation of our Christian experience, and sets the goal toward which our lives move. We believe in the power of God that can bring goodness out of evil, life out of death, and hope out of our despair.

Now Thomas, one of the disciples, insisted on a ‘hands-on-faith’. He not only wanted to see the wounds but touch them. What others said was not good enough. We all know someone like that. For Thomas, “seeing was believing”. For us, “believing is seeing!” Faith opens up a realm we have never dreamed of, and Jesus gives his blessings to those ‘who have not seen and are yet able to believe.’

Simply, this is what our faith is about — God can bring back to life that which has died; God can bring good out of evil; God can bring love out of hate; and hope out of despair. We also believe that can make all the difference in our lives and in the world.

We know One who, at the touch of his hand, or the whisper of his voice, can set us free and make us whole. One, who when we fall off of the wall can pick us up and put us back together again. That is our faith. That is why we can sing ‘Every morning is Easter morning from now on.’