Calvin Synod Herald, 1992 (92. évfolyam, 1-6. szám)

1992-03-01 / 2. szám

CALVIN SYNOD HERALD- 6 -REFORMÁTUSOK LAPJA

Easter Message

by Bishop Zoltán Szűcs

“On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.“...Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came... Jesus said to him, ‘Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.’ Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.”

(John 20: 19, 24, 29-31)

Our God the Creator, as the diadem of His creation, sanctified the Sabbath Day and mandated us to keep it holy, rejoicing in His beautiful creation. Yet we Christians keep our worship services not on the Sabbath day, but on the first day of the week, which we call the Lord’s Day, because for us this is the most significant day of the week, the commemorative day of the resurrection and the embodiment and reminder of our future hope and promise of eternal life. On the grounds of the new covenant made through Christ and within the framework of the progressive

revelation of God, we Christians worship and celebrate our covenant with God and rejoice in the future hope and promise of the glory of our permanent home. As Isaac Watts so succinctly puts it

“This is the day the Lord hath made; He calls the hours His own; Let heaven rejoice, let earth be glad, And praise surround the throne. Today He rose and left the dead, And Satan’s empire fell; Today the saints His triumphs spread, And all His wonders tell.”

This is the reason why the Lord’s Day became the most important day for us Christians, instead of the Sabbath day, in our endeavor of our faith, travel on earth and witness.

According to our biblical story, described in the 20th chapter of the gospel of John, the disciples of Christ came together on this first day of the week. Being shattered by the crucifixion, they were scared, troubled, lonely, felt let down, yet they were together in fellowship. Yet they were awaiting, in spite of their fears, the fulfillment of God’s promise. They were a community of expectation, a community waiting upon God. God was not in deparate need of them, but they were in desparate need of the presence of God. They were the embodiment of the inheritors of God’s promise. They were expecting something from God and God, as always in human history, did not disappoint them. The risen Lord Himself appears to them, revealing to them the very power of His resurrection and the very promise of their life eternal. He personally brings them His peace, enabling them to overcome their fear and giving them their mandate to proclaim the resurrection. He Himself sets their hearts at peace, empowers them and sends them out as witnesses. God, and not man, is at work here. Sin appears to be triumphant in the crucifixion of Good Friday, but God corrects what

man spoiled. This is the renewing, the recreating power of the resurrection. What sin ruined and scattered, necessitating the pain and shame of the Cross, covering all in black, the resurrection makes right, removing the black cover and enclosing everything in the purity of white.

We cannot, but note, that Thomas, the doubter, was not with the twelve. Sure he was hurt and scared like the rest of them, but he wanted to be alone, he did not want the fellowship, he was angry with the preacher or with his comrades, or with the whole fellowship and in his pain he did not want to be involved. The whole picture is a fabulous tension between faith and doubt. Yet the other disciples, those who believed, did not reject Thomas. Neither did they reject the two Marys, the didn’t even call them neurotics, because they testified about the resurrection even before any of them had met the risen Lord. This is why they came together that very night, the first day of the week, on the eve of the ressurection, because they were full of expectation. In their anxiety and pain they were waiting on God. They really trusted His promise to them. They were a scared, yet waiting, expecting community of faith, with no condemnation toward anyone, who were different or have different experiences or held different beliefs or convictions, than they did. They affirmed each other in love and faith, in spite of thier differences. They were all one in Christ. Condescension, judgment or condemnation had no room whatsoever in this oneness in the Lord.

We all live in the midst of this creative tension of faith and doubt. Our lives are also full of fears and anxieties and hopefully even with expectations. We all have both of God’s promises to us and our own insecurities and doubts. It would be so nice and simple, if the risen Lord