An Easter message from Rev Kathryn

With Easter early this year (and me running a little behind on newsletter planning), I'm going to take the opportunity to linger a little on the story of the resurrection of Jesus. It fits with the fact that the church celebrates Easter for 50 days! Perhaps the church hasn't always had a reputation for loving a good celebration (!) but our faith gives us a lot to celebrate. Even when the world around us challenges that faith, the Easter story is particularly poignant. Jesus' resurrection takes place against a backdrop of grief and despair. As the world grapples with war in Europe and the Middle East, it offers far more than glib statements or shallow hopes. The below is taken from Rachael Newham's book And Yet: Finding Joy in Lament (SPCK).

'John's account of Jesus' resurrection appearance begins with tears: “Mary stood outside the tomb crying” (John 20:11). We don't know a great deal about Mary Magdalene, but we read in the gospels that she was a woman who knew pain and rejection herself before Jesus befriended her, and she chose to be present alongside Jesus in his final dark days, even standing at the foot of his cross. As soon as she could, she rushed to visit his tomb.

For Mary to discover an empty tomb must have been a gut punch; she would have presumed that Jesus' body had been stolen, and by extension, her opportunity to care for his body and grieve him properly. In the early morning light, blinded by tears and confused, Mary mistook him for the gardener.

This is how the hope of God shows up time and again, in scripture and today, through the changes and uncertainty of life. It shows up in our brokenness, tears and scars. It reminds us that the kingdom of God is both now and not yet; it has arrived and yet we also ache as we watch the pictures on our TV screens, of wars, famines and disasters, and wait for its fulfilment. Even though Mary's reunion with the risen Jesus was perhaps not how she might have imagined it, she proclaimed: “I have seen the Lord” and, in doing so, became a bearer of good news.

The first few appearances of Jesus after his resurrection are not what we expect. They demonstrate gentleness and loving kindness rather than a blaze of glory, and they can't fail to bring us comfort. They illustrate that the hope Jesus brings is for everyone. When Jesus journeys with us through our darkest nights, he also reminds us of this story of heaven's hope and death's despair. And that hope always has the last word.

Jesus' resurrection appearances speak to the hardest emotions of human life, and Jesus himself was not unmarked by his ordeal; his wounds allude to the fact that trauma leaves a lasting legacy. The pain of the past does not disappear; but it is now infused with the comfort and hope of Jesus, who joins us in our feelings of hopelessness and in our weeping.

But this is the beauty of the Easter story: as much as it is a story of triumph over the grave, it's also a reminder of the God who meets us in our fragility, with his gentleness. The story of Mary Magdalene demonstrates that there is life and hope amid the wounding, and it is found in the person of Jesus.'

That's worth spending time pondering. You might want to look up some of the appearances yourself. If you don't have a Bible at home, the ones in church have helpful contents pages. Questions to ask for each one are “What do we learn about Jesus in this story? How does it offer hope?  John 20:11-18, Matthew 28:8-10, Luke 24:13-32, Luke 24:34, Luke 24:36-49, John 20:24-29, 1 Corinthians 15:6, 1 Corinthians 15:7, John 21:1-23, Matthew 28:16-20, Acts 1:1-11, Acts 9:1-9

Easter blessings,

Kathryn