To say the resurrection of Jesus is boring is an understatement. No one saw it happen and neither do any of us his followers today have an experience of a risen person.
Yet, after more than 2,000 years we still hold onto the claim that Jesus Christ rose from the dead. I find this mind-boggling.The basic issue is what is the resurrection of Jesus all about? What is in it? Why is it that the stories of the resurrection of Jesus refuse to die?One famous theologian describes the resurrection as “the place where great mists lie but also a place where great rivers spring.
” Great mists mean that the whole story or event is shrouded in mystery. No one saw Jesus rising from the dead. We are told that a great stone was used to cover the grave where his body was laid.
Who rolled the stone away? There were just a couple of Roman guards guarding the tomb and they would not open it for any reason. In any case why are Roman guards guarding a tomb of an itinerant preacher from Nazareth? There was no treasure buried with him.
The place where “great rivers spring” means that the resurrection is a place of new beginnings. Jesus began a new life after three days in the grave. Even more striking is the change that takes place in his followers.
Mary Magdalene comes to the tomb weeping and has a strange encounter with Jesus. She sees him and supposes him to be a gardener and asks him, “Sir, if you have taken him away tell me where you laid him, and I will take him.
” (Jn. 20:15) Then Jesus calls her by name and she answers, “Master” and rushes out to hug him. But Jesus tells her not to cling to him but rather go and tell his disciples that he is returning to his Father who is also their Father.
In other words, Jesus is going back to heaven.Then Jesus appeared to two disciples on the road to a village called Emmaus which was seven miles from Jerusalem. The Bible says they were “downcast” as they talked and shared their experience of loss with Jesus.
Jesus walks with them and as evening approaches they invite him to their home for the night and Jesus accepts their invitation. While they are at table, Jesus takes bread, said the blessing, broke it and gave it to them.
” Suddenly their eyes were opened and they recognised that the stranger who had walked with them for miles and shared their sorrow was indeed Jesus of Nazareth.
Then they said, “were our hearts not burning within us as he spoke to us on the way and opened the scriptures to us? (Lk. 24:32).
Now they walked back to Jerusalem not with downcast faces but with burning hearts, to tell their companions that they had seen Jesus alive. So what is in the resurrection stories of Jesus? Is it that Jesus rose from the dead physically or is it more of an invisible event that happened deep down the hearts of his followers?
This is an important question that has haunted the followers of Jesus for centuries and it still does so today. It is no wonder then the stories of the resurrection of Jesus will never die! Even if they are covered with “Ash Wednesday Dust” they keep coming back like a boomerang.
So the resurrection of Jesus is a place where great mists lie but also a place where great rivers spring and continue to flow downhill toward the ocean of mankind. We are all nourished spiritually by this mystery that took place over two thousand years ago.
