Entrance to the tomb of Christ's resurrection. Photo: bigstockphoto.com
Easter Sunday is ‘full of holes’ if we were looking for a coherent and believable presentation of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. The main players in the Easter drama are surprised and confused by the events as they were by the crucifixion of Jesus at Golgotha. In fact, the gospels record the apostles being puzzled and uncomprehending during much of the ministry of Jesus.
Today we know the story and are familiar with the progress to faith in the apostles and other disciples. This is the key – to have faith in the person of Jesus and to ponder and reflect on what it meant for the disciples and for us today. We see how they grow in faith and power.
In “Abiding Word’, her commentary on the gospels, Sister Barbara Reid explains there are many differing theological explanations for the death of Jesus; ‘to save us from our sins’ is a popular understanding. She contends that Matthew framed the death of Jesus, not as a sacrifice of atonement for our sins, but rather as the result of living a life of forgiving love. His intention was to pass on this message through his disciples.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission was set up in South Africa in 1996 with a mandate to bear witness to the perpetrators of crimes relating to human rights violations. A register of reconciliation was also established for people to express regret for past failures and express remorse.
One of the findings to come out of the commission was that those who expressed remorse for their crimes were ‘only ‘set free’ when the people or family of those they murdered forgave them. They needed to be forgiven before they could forgive themselves to give us
Jesus the risen Christ was a victim during his life and like many people, men, women and children, he was tortured and executed. Humanity’s inhumanity is always going to be with us. People do not have to be Christians to be able to forgive their enemies but the Risen Lord has power in his life, through the Father’s power to give us this power. He offers it to all people especially the baptised, who have his life in them. With his life in us, what might seem impossible becomes possible for us.
We can forgive through the power and example of his life because he has loved us first. Obviously his preaching and witnessing to the Father and being obedient to Him led him into trouble and ended in his death. Fortunately, this was not the end of his story or ours!
We have a difficulty when we know from the Lord himself that his forgiveness of us is connected to our forgiveness of others. This is a real battleground for people. Yet through these ongoing struggles, our relationship with our lovely God can deepen until goodness blossoms for us and in us.
The resurrection means life and joy; it means letting go, of what holds us back. But we don’t have to do it alone.
Columban Fr Gary Walker is currently living at the Columban house in Sandgate, Brisbane.
