Magyar Egyház, 1957 (36. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1957-04-01 / 4. szám
MAGYAR EGYHÁZ 15 WHAT WILL YOU BE DOING AFTER EASTER? Read: Mark 16:1-8. According to the report of the oldest of the four Gospels of our Bible, of Mark’s, very early on the first day Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome went to the tomb where Jesus had been laid. They wanted to anoint the body. On their way they were worrying about the stone at the door of the tomb: who is going to help them to roll it away. As they arrived they saw that the stone was rolled back. The women went into the tomb and there they saw a young man sitting on the right side. He spoke to the amazed women: “Do not be amazed; you seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen, he is not here; see the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him, as he told you.” Here was the Easter message told to the women. That He has risen, that what Jesus had told several times — that He would rise from the dead — now really happened. But in addition to the news the women were also charged by the young man, “Go, tell his disciples . . .” And what did the women do? Here is the Gospel’s account: “And they went out and fled from the tomb; for trembling and astonishment had come upon them; and they said nothing to any one, for they were afraid.” It is understandable that first the women were both silent and afraid. It certainly must have been a shock to them to find the tomb empty. It took time for them to grasp what the young man told them: He has risen! We can picture what happened as they ran from the tomb. After a while, out of breath, they stopped. They sat down to rest. They looked at each other. “What happened?” — the one would ask the others. “It can’t be true ...” — the second would say. “But it must be true, it must, it must, the tomb was empty” — so the third. And as they calmed down and got out of their first shock they realized that what Jesus foretold about his resurrection came true. Then, and here we must borrow from Matthew’s account, “with . . . great joy” they “ran to tell his disciples”. The first part of what I have just retold is not only the record of that first Easter morning. It is also the picture of the attitude of so many Christians, followers of Jesus Christ. They go to church on Easter morning to hear the Easter message: He has risen. Joyfully they sing the hymn, “Christ, the Lord is risen today, Allelujah!”. And they are amazed about the Easter Gospel. Every Easter brings this experience of amazement. Christians in church on Easter morning all have that spiritual sensation of amazement, a mixture of fear, bewilderment, joy. For the Easter Gospel is difficult to believe, yet the Christian wants to believe it, and if he knows Christ in the depth of his heart he cannot help believing it. Then the Easter service is over and church-attending Christians go home. They don’t exactly run like those women of old and they are not filled with fear anymore either. But they are surely silent about their Easter experience. Easter passes away, people, Christians are back in the old world of everyday, and — well: to how many of your friends and neighbors do you used to talk after Easter about the risen Christ? To how many did you speak about Him last year after Easter? The Christian message, the Easter message needs to be told. In the first century after the death of the apostles and through the centuries thereafter it was not radio, TV, not millions of printed books which told the Easter message to the world resulting in the world-wide Christian Church. The means of mass communication in this case were of a unique kind: neighbor to neighbor, lip to lip, heart to heart, Christian to his fellow-man. This is the way Christ himself wanted the Gospel to be spread. He preached to the multitude but He also sent out the disciples two by two to carry the message into the villages, into the homes. And then, finally, He gave a global charge to the disciples, “Make disciples of all nations . . . teaching them...” Now, “all nations” should certainly include my next door neighbor, my friends or the people at the place of my work. I said before that the first part of the story about the women is a true picture of modern Christians who after having heard the Easter message are silent. The second part of that story must fit us, too. I mean that after church on Easter morning we go with great joy to tell about the risen Lord. Dr. Andrew Harsanyi THE LAW OF GOD It is a clear teaching of the Bible that God forgives the sins and gives eternal life to those only who believe in Jesus Christ. It is also true that true faith in Jesus manifests itself in repentance and conversion. Only that man can say that he truly believes in Jesus who admits his sinfulness and strives most sincerely to live according to the will of God. Repentance and conversion are so essential for obtaining our salvation that unrepentant and unconverted men can not hope that God will forgive them and give them eternal life in heaven. Since true faith in Jesus Christ and its fruits: repentance and conversion are vitally important for our salvation, the Holy Spirit graciously helps us to have true repentance and true conversion, that is true faith in Jesus Christ, by making us conscious of the Law of God. By the Law of God we mean the Ten Commandments which God gave mankind through Moses and in which He reveals what our duties are both towards Him and our fellow men. The knowledge of the Ten Commandmants awakens true repentance in my heart by making me realize that through unclean thoughts, desires, words and deeds I break the holy commandments of God every day. The Ten Commandments is like a mirror in which we can see our own life with all our sins and transgressions. Therefore the Bible says: “Through the Law comes knowledge of sin.” Rom. 3:20. Indeed a man must be spiritually blind if he says that he is good without blame, when he knows the Ten Commandments. Knowledge of the Ten Comandments helps me also to have true conversion. The Ten Command-
