"Once you start to imitate God here on earth, then you will realise that your soul already lives in heaven, and you will begin to understand the mysteries of God.

 

“You will love and admire those who are being persecuted because they refuse to deny God,  You will condemn the conceit and error of this world.  You will hold even death itself in contempt, becoming fearless in speaking to others about God, because no punishment inflicted by earthly powers can extinguish the divine joy in your heart.

 

“Thus the prospect of being thrown to wild beasts, and being burned at the stake, will not strike terror in your heart, but will be a matter of indifference.  You will find yourself thanking God for everything that befalls you, whether it brings pleasure or pain, because you will trust God completely."

 

John 20:1–9 or Mark 16:1–7

 

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

 

Our faith is rooted in real and historical events.  Jesus of Nazareth was born in the town of Bethlehem, grew up in Nazareth and minstered in Galilee and Jerusalem; he died on the cross at Calvary and rose again on the third day.  All these events are historically verified by reliable witnesses: the birth and the ministry of Jesus by the historians Josephus and Pliny the Younger, the resurrection by the disciples.

 

In about AD 56 Paul wrote, “I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.” (1Cor. 15:3–5).  Paul is referring to what we can call the living tradition of the resurrection and we are inheritors of this living tradition today.

 

However, primary evidence for the resurrection of Jesus from the dead is a sign, and a confusing one at that: the sign of the empty tomb.  None of the Evangelists witnessed the actual event, only its aftermath, if you like.  Why is this?  Of course, like many subjects in relation to faith, in order to understand we need first to believe: faith comes before understanding.  In accepting and believing that Jesus of Nazareth rose from the dead, we can enter its mystery.

 

When Jesus rose from the dead an “evolutionary leap” occurred and a new kind of life broke forth from the tomb.  This new life is outside the boundaries of time and space that we know and understand.  Although it occurred within history, Jesus’s resurrection is beyond history, meaning that nothing like this has happened before.  The resurrected Jesus has revealed a new life, a new existence, one that is set free from the corruption of sin and death.

 

The disciples experienced the Lord as a risen and real person and laid down their lives for this faith.  Perhaps the truth of Jesus’s resurrection can be grasped only with the eyes of faith.  Today we open wide these eyes of faith and let the light of the resurrection radiate and illuminate our lives.