Living on
“This Side” of Easter
A Meditation for
Easter – 2010
By Dr. G.
Byrns Coleman
In many ways it
is much easier for us than it was for them; we
stand on this side of Good Friday. In fact,
it is that perspective that enables us to call it
“good.” What was there so
triumphant, so holy or so good about these episodes
in the life of Jesus that brought him nearer to the
cross which meant death?
We see it because, from our
perspective, we know the end of the story.
The end is not death and a lonely garden grave, but
resurrection and life.
We sometimes read the New
Testament account hoping that in it Peter, John,
Paul and these early Christians will explain to us
the meaning of the resurrection. In a real
way, however, they do not explain the resurrection,
but it explains them. There they were
then: frightened, frustrated and running
away into the night.
Peter denying, Thomas
doubting, and James and John no doubt still fussing
over who was to sit on his right and left when the
“kingdom” comes. Look at them
now at Pentecost, after that tragic night of
the cross and the victory of “the morning of
the first day of the week.” They are
different men (no, rather: The Same men whose
lives have been transformed by the risen
Lord!!)
Peter, now becomes the
spokesman for the “good news” in his
sermon at Pentecost after the Spirit came.
Thomas, now comes to the first full-blown
confession of faith in his declaration:
“My Lord and my God.”
These early disciples passed,
painful as it must have been, from
“sight” into “the experience of
faith.” Their relationship to Jesus
would now be on a different plain. They must
get used to the fact that even though they do not
see him with the naked eye or hear him with the
physical ear, he is just as real and is indeed with
them.
God had taken man’s
worse and made it into what was best—out of
hatred came love, out of darkness came light, and
out of death came life. God has taken away
the power of sin and the terror of death. He
did not take away death, for we all must die, but
the Easter message is that Jesus revealed that
death is but a door to that greater life with
God.
The writer of Hebrews in the
New Testament declares that Jesus is “the
pioneer” of our faith—He has been where
we are and can sympathize with us. So, even
in the light of death, we can be comforted in the
knowledge that he has already been there. Out
of death came freedom to live (I Corinthians
15:55-56).
Let us meditate again on the
old story that is forever new in the Gospels.
Read Luke 24. Despite the emphasis on
materialistic sights let us pray that we may move
from sight into a more realistic and genuine
adventure of faith. Even in a world of pain,
sickness and death, let us pray for the courage to
acknowledge: he is “the resurrection and
the life.”
Prayer: Father, may
the Easter faith enable us to know that death has
been defeated and we are set from its
terror—in this freedom of faith.
Amen.
About the
Author
G. Byrns Coleman is Professor
of Religion and Chair of Department of Religion
& Philosophy, Wingate
University, Wingate, NC
. He is also a member of Wingate
Baptist Church
.
-
If you have never made the
commitment to receive the love and life-changing
experience of Jesus Christ, please take a moment
to go
here and take the
first
steps to
salvation.
|