Magyar Egyház, 1960 (39. évfolyam, 1-9. szám)
1960-03-01 / 3. szám
MAGYAR EGYHÁZ 7 MAGYAR CHURCH Bishop Zoltán Beky: WE LIVE BY EASTER'S STRENGTH The great German evangelical composer Johann Sebestian Bach’s “Matthew Passion” ends in miraculously beautiful and painful chords. A broken hearted, sorrowful Chorus bids farewell to the dead “sweet Jesus” and wishes his body a quiet rest. How sad would man’s life be, how different our whole history would be, if the sad closing strains of “Mathew’s Passion” would offer the ending to our Saviour’s life. How wonderful it is that the same Bach could compose such magnificently glorious Easter cantatas, that we may write with joy “Christ, our Head, is living!” The sinful world, for whom Christ’s death should have been a joyous occasion trembled even from his dead body. The sealed tomb, the grim visaged armed guards, both bore the symbol that the world’s reigning principalities, the faithless, the doubting, fear the Son of God even in his death. Even today this is happening. Men who believe themselves to be wise declare boastfully that the Lord could not have risen. Communism, possessed by Satan, cries out that Christ never lived, or if there ever was a Jesus of Nazerath, he died and turned to dust long ago in the garden of Joseph. Yet they close down churches, imprison believers, and persecute ministers, because they fear the power of Jesus even though they believe him to be dead. “Don’t be afraid,” said the risen Lord on Easter morn. Fear not to live as a witness to my resurrection, because, after all, Christianity cannot be anything other than a life which elicits reason, hope, joy and service from the risen Christ. Woe unto that Christian congregation which does not find its nourishment in this message! Woe unto Christianity if it deprives itself of the great and personal experience of Easter morning! Fear not to live today — let not your life be filled with worries and fears. Christian faith will give you hope and meaning to your life even today. On this Easter also, you may meet your risen Saviour and with gladness fall at his feet: “I live, Lord, because you overcame death.” Be not afraid to live today, my Hungarian bretheren, because to your sorrowful destiny on Good Friday Jesus sends this message: “I’m with you always, even to the end of the world.” The risen Lord is with you in your suffering in prison, in your sorrow, so that Easter and the power of the miraculous resurrection may be for you. PALM SUNDAY An appeal to the eye and ear and heart may awaken sentiment and prepare the way for the surrender of the will. Jesus was offering himself as King for the last time and therefore his offer was made in a most impressive way. He appealed to the imagination. He stirred the emotions. He did not mean that he was to be such a King as the people supposed; the borrowed colt, the garments of the peasants, the palm leaves were not to be permanent furnishings of a royal court. He wished to secure the submission of their wills, the complete surrender of their lives, and therefore he made this stirring, dramatic appeal to the multitudes. He knew that religious feeling is an aid to religious faith. During the early days of the Reformation Gaspard de Coligny, the Huguenot captain of the Reformation in France, was defending the little town of St. Quentin against the Spaniards. Its ramparts were in ruins, fever and famine raged within, and the terrified people were talking of surrender. One day the Spaniards shot over the wall an arrow bearing a strip of parchment. The writing on the parchment promised to spare the lives and property of the people if they would open the city gates. Coligny took another strip of parchment, wrote on it two words, fixed it to a spear, and flung it over into the camp of the enemy. “Regem Habemus’’ — IFe have a King — were the two words, and they meant that Coligny had faith in his country to win out, which his loyal soul summed up in the person of his sovereign. We have a King, the King of goodness and truth and love. The King on whom we can always rely, the King to whom we owe our utmost loyalty. Long heard of, not a stranger, at last he comes finally and formally to claim us for his own, to solemnly assert that we belong to Him. Such days come to all of us. Days when we feel as if the Savior, had gathered up all his power of appeal and expected to be then either accepted or rejected. Such days are to us what Palm Sunday was to Jerusalem. His day of acclaim must be our day of decision. Let us vow to fight manfully under His banner. Let us overcome for His sake our selfishness, pride, bad temper, whatever it is of which He disapproves. Let us do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Let us be loyal to Christ our King, in word and deed. Tibor Toth
