Fraternity-Testvériség, 1980 (58. évfolyam, 1-4. szám)
1980-01-01 / 1. szám
REV. PAUL KOVÁCS: “THE AFFIRMATION, DENIAL, AND EVIDENCE OF EASTER” Mark 16:1-8 When the young man said to the women at the gravesite, “Do not be amazed, you seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified, he has risen, he is not here,” he said so much, in such few words. Easter makes a strong AFFIRMATION: Christ is risen! Death could not hold him, the tomb could not contain him. God through his mighty arm brought forth Jesus Christ from the dead on Easter morning. There are those who say that Christianity rises or falls with the affirmation that Christ arose from the dead. This is what Paul seems to say: “If Christ be not raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.” (I. Corinthians 15:17.) If Christ is not risen our preaching is without power and our faith is hollow and empty. But Christ is risen! This is the great affirmation we make. What does the resurrection of Jesus affirm? It affirms Jesus Christ. He is who he said he was: the Son of God. He is credible. You can trust him. There is no credibility gap between the claims he made for himself and who he was. He is the mighty, risen, living Christ. Strong to save and redeem. The resurrection of Jesus affirms the power of goodness, truth and love. He was the bearer of these qualities as no man before or after him. If he could be destroyed who could be sure that the light will not some day be swallowed up by darkness. But because the bearer of these qualities has risen, we can feel with confidence that evil can never destroy truth and hatred can never destroy love. Finally, the resurrection of Jesus is life affirming. Jesus Christ has done battle with death, where death is king — in a tomb. Jesus Christ has won and he shares his vctory with all who are open to him by faith. Therefore, life has eternal dimensions. Easter not only makes an affirmation, but a DENIAL. The denial is: “He is not here.” The denial of Easter tells us that you cannot contain or control Christ. He has been set free of the Roman swords, crosses, tombs, sepulchres and all of man’s efforts to restrain and imprison him. There are other ways than tombs by which we seek to contain Christ. Man tried to lock him into their religious institutions, churches and religious groups. Others said: “We are the true Church — we have Christ, but you don’t.” Easter countered: “He is not here.” Sometimes we try to catch Christ in our creeds, dogmas, confessions of faith and theological formulas. These may be kinds of tombs where we try to contain Christ. At best they are pointers indicating who and where Christ is. The young man at the sepulchre on that first Easter pointed to the empty tomb and said, “See the place where they laid him.” There was the EVIDENCE: the tomb that contained the body of Christ was now empty, Christ is free of death. In South America I saw a strange plant. It can be also found in Texas. The plant’s name is: siempre viva; the resurrection plant. It needs nothing but water to grow. It requires no soil, no attention other than putting it in a saucer of water. The resurrection plant will lie indefinitely on a shelf or in the sun-scorched desert, apparently as dead as an oak leaf in winter, but if cleaned and placed in water, it will come to life in minutes. A beautiful fern-like herb that is said to have “eternal life” because of this strange power. A strange transformation took place in the lives of the followers of Jesus apart from the resurrection. It couldn’t have happened without Easter. Without the resurrection, Good Friday would have been a BAD FRIDAY. There would have been no good news. His followers could have offered no hope to the world. But there are many across the long history of the Christian faith, who like Paul, have been thoroughly convinced that Christ is alive, because they have met him. They have experienced the living Christ. They have remembered the last promise Jesus made to his disciples; “Lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.” (Matt. 28:20.) So let the faith of Easter drive away our crippling doubts and its power overcome our weakness. And let us rejoice in the strong affirmation: HE IS RISEN! The Hungarian Reformed Federation of America wishes a happy and blessed Easter to all its Members and Friends The National Officers. 2
