Easter Festal Evensong

Alleluia, today we are saved. The only problem is that the mystery is so powerful, so wonderful it can be hard to understand.

We have just heard Paul’s account of the resurrection – an event which non-Christians challenge, and even within the church there is discussion even controversy over the true meaning, and this is why Paul wrote this for it was no easier for the Corinthians to fully understand than it is for people today. Yet this is the centre of our faith, without the resurrection we have no hope, with it there is the promise of salvation of eternal life.

Paul was writing to the Corinthians at a time of trouble, divisions, misunderstandings, so what is new in the controversy around today. They may have lived at a time nearer to Christ’s life, but like us they had to work out for themselves the whole mystery.

Paul is trying to make it easier for them to fully understand because as he said it was of the first importance. The need to understand, that salvation, redemption was bought for us by God, who in the form of Jesus suffered for us.

I didn’t hear Jeffrey Johns broadcast so it can’t comment on what he said but I did hear a very evangelical view of Easter. Now, and I am not saying I have got it right, I cannot accept that God had his son murdered for us, in the sense a totally human father would have done, if I had had Mark murdered as a sacrifice. Yes, Jesus died on the cross for our sins, but if you believe in the Trinity, and that is the foundation of our faith, then Jesus is God in human form. No I believe that as part of the Trinity the divine God suffered through the human son, for Jesus was truly divine and truly human, he can’t be compared with any one else, and that is why the events of Easter can be so hard to understand. If we cannot accept the Trinitarian God, that God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are one - we cannot say we have one God.

And that is why I believe we can believe in the promise of Easter. God the Son, Jesus, suffered, was tortured, he was murdered. I know that in Matthew and Mark, although not in the other Gospels, he is said to have felt abandoned by the divine part of himself for he cried out to God the Father. But then he said ‘Father forgive them for they know not what they do’ and at the end even one of the guards believed he was the Son of God.

The risen Christ was seen by many, his crucifixion and his resurrection were witnessed so we can have no doubt in it

historically.

So let us return what this means for us. We know we are all children of God, not divine like Christ but human, made in the image of God. And because we are not divine we are sinners, but through his Life on earth God showed he understood temptation, sorrow, suffering, he learned the difficulties of life, but even more he understood love.

So when we find life difficult, when everything seems to be against us God does understand, and we know that if we stay true to God we are redeemed. Through his great mercy we have the promise of everlasting life.

One of the problems facing society today is that in this era of advanced science, computers which seem to be able to solve anything, not being absolutely able to prove something in human terms is hard, in fact to many it is scary, disturbing. But salvation is the truth, it is the promise Christ bought for us, we just need to have faith, to trust, to believe.

Paul wanted to stress the bodily resurrection of Christ to convince the Corinthians that this wasn’t just something which was for Christ, but something which is for us, bought for us by Christ’s suffering but also bought for us by God’s love for us. For why else would there have been the crucifixion and resurrection, what would the point of it have been. If Jesus had just been crucified and then arisen, gone to heaven, and then it stopped what would have been the point of it all. It would have all been a waste of time, it would not have shown us anything.

No through love for us God the Son was born into a human family, grew up in a human family, and lived an earthly life. His life was one of compassion and mercy, showing God’s love. It was this love that sent him to the Cross, this love which brought him back to us on earth to show us the power of God. Even as his earthly self was in agony he remembered us, his children, not just those standing around at the crucifixion, not just the guards and the Pharisees. At the end he was calling out not just for the people then but for all future generations - for us today.

In those words surely Christ was telling us of his promise for us, the promise of salvation and eternal life. And this was not a new promise it is the same promise we heard in the reading from Isaiah, that he is the Holy One of Israel, our Saviour.

We may not fully understand everything about the resurrection but one thing we do know and that is that God the Father has saved us, he has redeemed us by the blood of Christ, God the Son, and we have been born again by the power of God the Holy Spirit, and adopted as his children. This is his promise it is our inheritance.

Alleluia. Amen