Magyar Egyház, 1959 (38. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1959-03-01 / 3. szám
10 MAGYAR EGYHÁZ MAGYAR CHURCH Mut &mmmr THAT STRANGE MAN A Good Friday Meditation Today it is quite popular to say that the oldfashioned ideas of Saviourhood and salvation and the like are as futile as they are obsolete. We are so proud that we do not relish the thought of having anybody save us. There are so many persons who, although in trouble, are not willing to admit that they need help. They seem to feel that it belittles them to ask for deliverance. They want encouragement, they say, and the power of a good example, but they do not like the thought of having anyone actually deliver them. Suppose you try that when your house is on fire. Just shout down from the third-story window when the flames are leaping all around you and call to the fireman who is about to run his ladder up to your imperiled room: “I say, my dear man, don’t run up your ladder; what I need is encouragement and the power of a fine example. I need sweetness and light!” No, you don’t, my friend. You need a saviour! Somebody to run to your rescue more swiftly than the wind, to climb faster than fire. Somebody with wisdom and skill to outwit and outmaneuver the redtongued devil that is ready to devour you and your terrified children. If we weren’t such proud fools, we would instantly see and freely admit that our great human need is that of a saviour. We need deliverance, not wisecracks. We supremely need a Saviour, not a dictator, or a demagogue. What is that which will turn millions of human feet to the house of prayer on Good Friday? Why are the churches filled to overflowing on Good Fridays, with men and women, young and old, rich and poor, wise and unlearned, from office, shop and factory, in deathlike stillness sitting? Why does a careless, selfish world, year after year, turn aside from its getting and its grinding, if only for a few hours, on the Friday we traditionally call “Good,” but which from some points of view is evil and terrible? Do men gather to see a spectacle of ineffable beauty, a pageant of glittering glory, a conquering hero riding down the avenue in the midst of an ecstatic throng? No! What they see is a strange figure upon a cross — bleak and bare, and that mysterious Man no mere prophet martyr, but a Saviour, the Saviour of every race and nation, the Saviour of every man who will come to him, the Saviour of the whole world. Call the roll of the immortals today and put on your list as many names as you have the breadth of culture and the insight of intelligence to discover. I’m quite likely to cheer the mention of all the names on your galaxy of the immortals — Socrates, Plato, Confucius, Buddha, and a hundred, yes, a thousand others. But far above them all as the sun rises high above the foothills and illimitably overtowers even the loftiest mountain peaks of the most majestic range is One — solitary and unique. A Saviour! The Saviour of mankind! We shall not cheer the mention of his name. We shall not fill the air with glad acclaim. But millions of us, who differ in a hundred things, in our detailed creeds, in our philosophy of life, in politics, economics and social theories — unnumbered millions, with bowed heads and penitent hearts, will meditate upon that Strange Figure toiling up a hill outside the city wall, bearing his cross. Whatever else he may be, he must be our Saviour. Let the pagans rant, let the sophisticates smile, and the cynics sneer, but we know that the Strange Figure upon that cross belongs to us, and that we belong to him. How glad / am that none of us can monopolize that Strange Figure on his cross. He doesn’t belong to you alone, or to me, to our set or race, to your church or my church. He belongs to all the people. And that is why millions of us, whatever our particular brand of belief, call ourselves Christians, for we belong to Him because He saved us. Tibor Toth EASTER REALITIES “...He is risen...” Mark 16:6. Easter is a lovely holiday. Our hearts are filled with joy by the beauty and thrill of awakening nature. The message of the risen Lord fits into the Easter mood. But here lies the danger, too: that the message will be no more than a sentimental mood without reality. As you sit down to read these lines let me help you to think about Easter’s reality without wanting to break that lovely Easter mood Easter proclaims the resurrection of Jesus Christ crucified on Good Friday. How was this possible? We may wonder and search for explanations. One thing is sure: if He had not risen from the dead we would never have heard of Him anymore. So here is reality number one: The Gospel accounts of Easter start as the final chords of a tragic symphony. Women visit the tomb: they want to embalm the body — an act for a dead man. The disciples were about to return to their previous jobs — a chapter of their lives has closed, a chapter of great experiences, of great joy, a chapter of terrible shock and of great disappointment. Best thing to do is to live as if nothing had
