Magyar Egyház, 1965 (44. évfolyam, 2-12. szám)
1965-03-01 / 3. szám
10 MAGYAR EGYHÁZ Let us listen to the angel of Easter. He does not argue with the men who are walking among the tombs, who experienced Good Friday and Holy Saturday. The angel simply declares the facts. Christ is risen! Christ is not among the dead, because He is the living Christ. Come weeping, sorrowing men who have lost hope and see the empty tomb. It is important, extremely important that you might see that the tomb is empty. He who looks into the empty tomb need fear no longer. He who looks into the empty tomb with the eye of faith knows that what Christ said is verily true and sacred. He who meets with the living Christ is enabled to look into the eyes of a thousand deaths and dangers and can know that there is no power that can separate Him from Christ. After the disciples looked into the empty tomb they knew that the living Christ was not among the dead and they believed in Him, who had transformed their lives. The frightened disciples preached to those who bad crucified Christ and pointed to the empty grave in order to prove the power of God which had raised the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead. They wrote the New Testament because they had looked into the empty grave. From this view their souls were lighted and they shouted forth their message into history. “We stood beside the empty tomb. We saw Him and talked with Him, who is the Prince of life!” To this testimony they placed their lives as a true and precious seal. The most important part of the Easter story is that only those where able to look into the empty tomb who loved Jesus and followed Him. Easter divided the world into two groups. One group was that happy minority who knew that Christ had conquered death and they had met with Him. The other group, the unbelievers, who were not able to believe in the resurrection and still believed that death was not conquered. The risen Christ was not seen by either the high priests, Pharisees, or Pilate, but only by those who were His disciples. The resurrection was not discovered by man but was declared by heavenly messengers to mourning men. The angel declared that Christ was alive and this happy news had to be carried on to those who belonged to Christ. God permits only His chosen who are seeking for Jesus with their whole hearts to look into the empty tomb. He who cannot see the emptiness of the tomb is not a Christian. Those who have seen the empty tomb, to them is promised that they will meet with the risen Christ and must further extend this message: the Lord is risen — especially to those who are walking among the dead, weeping for their lost ones. For two thousand years the living Christ always appears in the lives of His faithful followers. If you believe in Christ, if you follow Him whole-heartedly, He will suddenly give you the privilege to look into the empty tomb that you may have the certainty of Easter so that you may know that death has been defeated, the grave has power no longer. You will then have no need to fear death. There will be no circumstances in your lives which you will not face courageously, though they be very threatening. The disciples of Christ are the happy messengers of the resurrection. They really are men without fear, those who know that neither death nor life can separate them from Christ. They know that the risen Christ brings peace into all wounded and disappointed hearts if they want to meet Him. As men continue to see the empty tomb there will be more and more churches and thanksgiving prayers and joy on this earth. From looking into the open grave the fear of death disappears, because we know that our loved ones depart from us only for a day of Holy Saturday, but on a sunny resurrection morning we will meet again! Only those have Easter who with the eyes of faith can look into he empty tomb and as true disciples live in this life and wait for the great opportunity, when they will meet with Him and continue to believe that “though we die, we shall live.” Gracious Heavenly Father, we thank Thee that with the help of Thy Holy Spirit we have been privileged to look into the empty tomb. We have again heard the angel say: “He is not here! He is risen!” Give us this blessed Easter faith and help us so to live that we might meet with the living Christ. Take away the fear of death from our hearts and comfort those who cry for their loved ones who are gone. Give them the Easter assurance that their loved ones are living with the risen Christ. In His name we pray. Amen. Imre Bertalan: LENT: A REMINDER OF SELF-COMMITMENT In this season of Lent it would be well for each of us to consider the question, “How should I observe Lent?” Perhaps you would like to ask, “What is Lent anyway?” Lent is that forty day period, excluding Sundays, preceeding Easter, during which the Christian Church tries to prepare herself for a proper observance of the Festival of the Death and Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. These are the central events of the story of our redemption. The forty days are based on the forty days and nights Jesus fasted before His temptation in the wilderness. Sundays are excluded because each Sunday is already considered by the Christian church as a commemoration of the Resurrection. It is strongly emphasized in our Reformed tradition that prayer and other spiritual disciplines like fasting, ought to be continuous processes rather than concerns to be emphasized once a year in the so-called ‘Lenten Season.’ The stress on them during Lent should serve as a reminder how primary they are and yet how easy it is to neglect them. Just as Sunday is a reminder of the spirit in which God should be worshipped every day of the week in our personal life, in our home and in our vocation, so Lent can be considered as an annual reminder to the deepest realities of the Christian experience that should have equally important meaning for us during the whole year and the whole course of our life. Lent should be first and foremost, a period in which we intensify our contemplation of the meaning of the Crucifixion. We are to study intently the great act of God’s Love in Jesus Christ. We are to learn to appreciate more fully the tremendous sacrifice that He made... “God so loved... that He gave His only Begotten Son.” (John 3:16) Intellectually, emotionally, morally, and spiritually, we are to behold once again with the eyes of faith
