Resurrection

One time it occurred to me that my shower was getting a bit worn. You know what I mean, not just a few splashes and stains here and there, but rather full-blown mould starting to grow in some of the lower nooks and crannies. So, as any self-respecting shower owner would, I began cleaning.

Initially things went well, but I started to get frustrated at the fact that due to the hanging, sliding nature of the doors, I couldn’t get in everywhere I wanted to clean. Certain glass and joining surfaces were being obscured by said doors. Thus, I boldly took the decision to take the doors off! I’m not usually a D.I.Y. sort of person but this time I decided to give it ago. Besides, there wasn’t anyone I could conveniently call to come and help, and the thought came to mind, how hard could it be? If I can learn to speak other languages, surely, I can take a door off and put it back on! These two things however proved to be two very different kettles of fish.

I got my screwdriver out and did manage to get the doors off. It took some work and it was a bit dicey sometimes as to whether they were going to slip my grasp and fall and shatter on the floor, but fortunately there was no shattering!

 Having taken the doors off and placed them safely to one side, I got to work on cleaning out those pesky nooks and crannies, not to mention wiping well clean all the glass surfaces, even those otherwise hard to reach ones. The icing on the cake was that I also scraped out the old silicone filling and filled the joins with new silicone filling. Finally, I completed my handy work by slotting the doors back in place and screwing them up tightly! A job well done, right?

Well, it would have been if you overlook the silicone that I had splayed all over the place due to the intricate difficulties in smoothly using it to fill up gaps. This was complemented, by the fact that the sliding doors no longer fitted well into their groove and so no longer slid back and forth in a graceful manner, more like with a stubborn clunk. One other nuisance was that the screws that held the doors in place started to gradually undo themselves and cause the doors to become loose. Apart from that though things were fine.

I comforted myself with the thought that the doors’ state was probably more to do with wear and tear than any thing else, nevertheless there was a nagging regret that I hadn’t got someone else to come to do a more professional job!

In life we can often be plagued by regrets. Certain things haven’t turned out the way we would have liked, and we wish we could do things again. Sometimes this is connected to trivial things that don’t matter too much. One can live with dodgy shower doors at the end of the day. But sometimes these regrets are to do with important aspects of our lives. Maybe our career isn’t going well, and we wish we had taken a different path. Maybe there are tensions in our family, and we wish we hadn’t made certain mistakes. Maybe we made a bad decision and are still suffering the consequences many years later. There could be countless reasons why we wish we could make a new start. Doing things differently; Living life afresh. And the good news is that the resurrection offers us the hope that we can.

The first hope that we see is in connection with the women who were the first witnesses to the resurrection. It is interesting that women are mentioned in this way as being the ones who discover the empty tomb as it gives an air of authenticity to the Gospel accounts. The testimony of women in ancient Israel was not highly valued in society and so if someone was inventing what is written in the Gospels, it is unlikely that they would have made up that the first people to be witnesses were women.

More so, these are simple women, not well known in society, so there would be no reason to write that they were the first to Jesus’ tomb on Easter morning unless that’s the way it was. Indeed, we don’t know much about who these women were, except that they were with Jesus in Galilee and a few other details that we can piece together.

 In Mark’s gospel, there are three women mentioned as going on Easter morning to Jesus’ tomb. One is Mary the mother of James the younger and Joseph, about whom we know just that; that she was the mother of two boys who were presumably well-known in the first church and the fact that her son is described as James the younger implies that his father was also James. Secondly, there is Salome. There is a theory that she was the mother of John and James, Jesus’ disciples, in which case she would have been the wife of Zebedee (James’ and John’s father). Finally, and best known, is Mary Magdalene. Her name suggests that she was from Magdala, a town on the shores of lake Galilee. An important detail that we know about her is that Jesus had cast seven demons out of her (Luke 8:2) thus she had been saved from a very difficult situation and given a new hope by Jesus.

These simple ladies didn’t renounce their hopes in Jesus even though he had been killed on a cross. Instead, on Easter day morning, after the sabbath which was their day of rest, they set out early for Jesus’ tomb with the intention of anointing his body. However, what they discover is not what they are expecting. The stone is rolled away from the entrance to the tomb and they see inside an angel who informs them that Jesus is alive! (Mark 16:4-6).

Thus, not only do they become the unlikely first witnesses to Jesus’ resurrection, but they also have their persistent trust in Jesus rewarded with an even greater hope, that of victory over death!

The second sign of hope is found in Mark 16:7:

‘But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’

This is the angel telling the women to go and let Jesus’ disciples know what has happened and give them instructions on what to do next. However, there is an interesting detail. Here it says that they should tell his disciples and Peter. But surely Peter was one of the disciples? Why was it necessary to emphasis that they should tell him as well?

The answer can be found back in Mark 14. At the end of this chapter, after Jesus’ arrest, we see that Peter followed at a distance to the place where Jesus was put on trial. While waiting outside in the courtyard people begin to recognise him and so he starts to deny ever knowing Jesus. He does this three times before the cock crows which reminds him of what Jesus’ had predicted would happen:

 Immediately the cock crowed the second time. Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken to him: ‘Before the cock crows twice you will disown me three times.’ And he broke down and wept.

He is obviously very distressed that he has denied Jesus, especially as just a few verses earlier, he had ‘insisted emphatically, ‘Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.’

Thus, the angel’s words in chapter 16 are particularly pertinent for Peter. They are emphasising the fact that Jesus’ resurrection is also for him, in spite of his failing in the moment of hard testing. Jesus’ death was a payment for sin and so now that the sin has been payed for, Peter can be forgiven and restored to a right relationship with Jesus. This is the hope that the resurrection brings to all of us. No matter who we are or what we have done, Jesus has paid the penalty for our sins and so if we entrust ourselves to Him, we can be forgiven and make a new start. This is truly a message of hope.

The third and greatest hope is found just before this in verse 6:

‘Don’t be alarmed,’ he said. ‘You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him.

The women have found an empty tomb with an angel sitting in it. He informs them that Jesus is alive and no longer there. This is not the first time in the Bible that someone is reported as returning from the dead, but there is something extra special about Jesus’ resurrection.

One of those raised from the dead in the Bible is Lazarus. We read about this in John 11. The significant thing about this is that, although Lazarus is brought back to life, he is brought back to the same quality of life as he had before on this earth. In other words, he is still prone to death. We see this ironically emphasised in John 12:10 where we read that the chief priests are planning to kill Lazarus because many are believing in Jesus due to the fact that he brought Lazarus back from the dead.

We see then that those raised to life before Jesus, were brought back to their earthly lives and eventually died again. Jesus however rose to a new quality of eternal life. His body was a resurrection body (as mentioned in 1 Corinthians 15:35-57). By His resurrection, he was demonstrating that He had defeated death, and, in that sense, He was the first fruit of those who have fallen asleep as the Apostle Paul puts it earlier in 1 Corinthians 15:20.

Thus, the one true all pervading hope of the resurrection is that whoever we are, no matter what we have done, those who fall asleep trusting in Jesus have the hope that one day they will also awake with Him to this new eternal life!