April 2017 – Kiwichurch

This day, Good Friday, I’m drawn to explore Jesus Christ.
Death. Life. Love. What’s it all about?
A death on a cross? Why?
A sacrifice? For what?

Death can evoke deep realities in us sometimes.
Our failures can be laid bare; our human frailty, our mortality, can become visible before us in the death of another.
But Jesus died on purpose, for a purpose;
he made his death a means to an end – a means to our end.

Is death all that there is? Is death itself the end?
The cross says, no: death is just the beginning.
There is the crucifixion, and then the empty cross.
After death comes the grave;
and after the grave comes the Light, at the end of the tunnel.

After death comes a new kind of life.

Why should this day be called Good Friday: this day, on which we remember Jesus’s death?
Because Jesus offered his life for us: so that he might lead us through our own graves into a better life.

There are many kinds of deaths, just as there are many kinds of resurrections.
There is life, there is death, and then there is life again.
Sometimes the new life costs: sometimes it requires facing a kind of death first.
But the sun rises in the morning: a new day. A new life.

At the cross, we can see ourselves: who we are, who we are not, who we ought to be – who we can be.
At the cross, we can see an offering: Love, with all its sacrifice – a role model! A new Way! The right Way.

There is a kind of Life stronger than Death.
There is a Way of Life stronger than our own lesser way of life.

The cross is calling us into something more than we are.
The cross is calling us to someone greater than we are.

But this is no mediocre calling: no, beware.
The best things in life aren’t free: they demand our all.
This kind of Love is radical: this kind of Love is life-changing, and life-demanding.
‘Take up your cross and follow me.’

This is no ‘walk in the park’ offering: this call is serious.
Reciprocity! Jesus’s sacrifice is a call to reciprocate:
a call for us to offer our lives in response to his offering of his life;
a call for us to give ourselves into his Calling.

Why not answer the call?

Why do Christians believe in God?
Because of Jesus Christ: his life, death and resurrection.
But what is the evidence for Jesus?
The witness of those who lived with him, and died for him.

It’s really that simple.

Does scepticism define truth? It does not.
Does a pre-existing understanding of the universe that cannot allow for the possibility of Christ, or God, define truth? No.
Does stereotyping define truth? Certainly not: it is self-defence, or a wilful lack of understanding of those who are different.

So, why then is there scepticism?
Well, the assertions of Christianity are a big deal.
This person Jesus Christ lived? The sceptic can usually live with that. (Though not always.)
He died? Sure: we all do that.
But he rose again? No way.
Resurrections don’t happen – so the testimony must be false.
Magic, mental illness, corruption of the church: anything and everything to dispute what is being said.
Metaphorical! The more spiritually inclined sceptic might turn to this reframing of what was written.
And, at the same time, the sceptic will call for evidence.
‘Give me evidence!’ is the cry of the sceptic, as he sets aside the Bible. ‘Give me evidence that will stand up in court!’ as she reaches for another book outlining The Theory of Evolution, on which to build her understanding of life.

But the evidence for Christianity is already here, and has been here all along, passed on faithfully, at high cost, for 2000 years.
The evidence for God is the witnessed accounts of Jesus: his life, death and resurrection.
The evidence for Christ is the New Testament of the Bible: the reason why the church of over two billion exists today.

People saw him.
They watched him preach, they watched him heal, they watched him feed the hungry.
They watched him beaten and crucified, and then they saw him alive again.
One, two, three…five hundred at one time.
Jesus had predicted his own death and resurrection: and now his followers watched it coming true before their own eyes.

Can a person allow for the possibility of God? That is the question.
Can a person let in the possibility that the Jesus Christ of the New Testament actually was real? That is the test.
Because the implications of this person are huge.
If the Jesus of the Bible is real, a doorway is opened up to God by looking at Christ:
here is a person who had power over life and death, in his stated connection with God; here is a person who went through death and came out of the other side again.
Such a person, if real, has the authority to talk about God, about humanity, about death and about life.
Such a person, if real, has the right for our attention.

Is a person who believes in Jesus Christ intellectually inferior, or mentally ill?
Certainly not: if the New Testament accounts are real, the Christian is simply keeping it real, whether or not they are stereotyped or even killed for it.
Because truth today, both scientific and historic, is based in observation,
and Jesus was observed by many, 2000 years ago.
We are not talking about a mere fairy tale here, or the explorations of science fiction: we are talking about history.

Show me the person who has courage to look at the possibility of God, and I will show you the true scientist.
Look at the evidence, with open mind and open heart, and see.
Be truly informed, and then you will be free to decide for yourselves whether Jesus Christ is what the New Testament asserts;
The Saviour of the World, the King of humanity,
The Son of God.