Resurrection

Grace leads us from the death of hope to a resurrection of all that we are created to be. In the midst of our sadnesses and our failures Jesus shows us a life that was lived for failures. Jesus loved those whom the world would say are beyond hope, beyond mercy, beyond love. Jesus followers were from the seedy end of town. Jesus did not have a public relations expert, he did not seek the approval of those who were in high regard, he did not court the approval of the religious elite, he stubbornly loved the destitute, the damned and the desperate. In essence Jesus became a failure for us, and, when he took his last breath on the cross, all who were looking on would have pronounced him a dreadful and tragic disappointment. After three years of the most extraordinary times, his message of love, his embracing of the most awful fallen humanity there wasn't even a small protest at the foot of the cross. Even most of his disciples ran away. I wonder what Mary thought as she looked up into the brutalised face of her son. I wonder if she thought again of the angel Michael's annunciation and wondered what had happened to her dreams and expectations.

However, the resurrection crowns the worst that mankind could ever do with the glory and majesty of all that God is. The resurrection is God's eternal answer to us, who in our pride and arrogance, waged war against the truth of Jesus' message. Mankind refused then as it refuses today to embrace a love, a grace, forgiveness, acceptance and mercy that is unmerited, unconditional and free.

Jesus did not need to show himself to his disciples. All he needed was to have three meetings on that resurrection morning. If Jesus met with Caiaphas, the High Priest, Herod, the King and Pilate the Roman Governor there would have been an entirely different message than the one we have today. Three meetings that would have changed Jerusalem, Israel and the known world. However Jesus simply returns to his grieving, shamed and broken friends. Jesus continues where he left off and embraces failed and fallen lives. This resurrection reaches forward from that first Easter Sunday and it finds me, it finds you, challenging all as it embraces all to live lives that are loving, gracious, forgiving and merciful. There may not be many crowds as that message is challenged time and time again for it seems to me that there will always be a cross for the message of Jesus, however, there is a resurrection that, even in the shadow of death, will live through all who are touched by those extraordinary three years that revealed God in the flesh, his living autobiography, his living self-portrait..... Jesus