Fraternity-Testvériség, 1975 (53. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1975-01-01 / 1-3. szám
English Section Tibor Toth: Ijf SEE WHERE THEY LAID HIM Mark 16:1-8 In every one of the four Gospels it is pointed out that those who witnessed the crucifixion of Jesus, those who were there and were eye witnesses at the time of the resurrection, in every instance they went into the tomb and saw that it was empty. Why? Why would there be a particular significance to looking at the place where He had been laid? Because I’m sure that it was necessary that there be no question that He bad risen. Because these were the people who were going to bear witness to the resurrection in the world that was skeptical and sinful and disbelieving, and they needed to be sure of their own faith. “Come see the place where they laid Him.” So they took a good look and testified that the tomb was empty. See, the idea was to get rid of Him. First you kill Him, then you bury Him, and that’s that. You get rid of Him, you get Him out of the way, you don’t have any more trouble with this trouble maker from Galilee. Of course it didn’t work out that way, but they thought that was going to do it. Well, it hasn’t been so easy, across the centuries, to get rid of Him even when people have wanted to get rid of Him. We could call to our attention the fact that we have buried our Christ in our own selfish interests and purposes, across the centuries down to the present day. There are those who will call upon the name of Christ to support whatever they themselves have already determined is what they want to do. So we have put Christ in uniform again and again and we have said, “Christ is on our side,” while those fighting on the other side said, “Christ is on our side.” We’ve killed each other and slaughtered populations in the name of Christ. You see we tried to bury Him out of sight by just putting Him in a uniform and making Him one of the boys. But He won’t stay there. There is no grave that can hold Him. He comes out to be the voice of our consciences. We like to go around in our own time, following our own pursuits, the desires of our own healts, achieving the things that seem to us desirable, we like to go our way undisturbed and so we would bury our Christ. We would bury Him behind a facade of piety, we would bury Him within a shroud of respectability. We would come to His place of worship, from time to time, and we would go through the right motions, say the right things and do the right acts, then go out and live lives according to our own plans and purposes and selfish desires and principles. Come see where we have buried Him. We have buried Him in our own willful philosophy. We’ve said, “I don’t believe it is necessary to believe all these things. Just live a decent life and you’re alright. I don’t believe in going to church. I think the people in the church are a bunch of hypocrites. I don’t see any reason to go through these forms, I don’t see any reason to engage in the church’s activities, I don’t see why I should be asked to give money, to do anything for people on the other side of the world. After all, they never did anything for me.” We can bury Him in our rationalizations, so we can bury Him in the beauty of our worship, we can bury Him a thousand different ways. Come see where we have laid Him, and then see that always the tomb is empty. He won’t stay there. But if we seek happiness, if we seek joy unspeakable, let the risen Christ come in. Let the risen Christ be the center of our lives. Don’t try to evade Him. Straighten up the conscience that He’s hurting, and find joy and peace and service that can really save the world. 16
