Magyar Egyház, 2005 (84. évfolyam, 1-4. szám)
2005-01-01 / 1. szám
4. oldal MAGYAR EGYHÁZ Why Do You Weep ? John 20:11-18. ÍJ As your thoughts turn toward Easter, —* consider the question which the angels put to I Mary, as she looked into the tomb to make sure that the body of Jesus was really gone. LI “Woman, why are you weeping ?” (John 20:13.) You may think that a silly question. Why shouldn’t you weep at a tomb ? Who hasn’t shed tears at a grave of a dear one ? Yet the question deserves an answer. If Jesus had helped Mary to answer that question, he would have said several things. Why do you weep ? Because, you attached too much importance to the physical body. They may have taken away the body of Jesus, but they did not take away Jesus. It is an elementary Christian truth that life is so much more than the body, as to make the body of little consequence. It is only an unconverted area of paganism in our thinking that makes the body the maudlin center of attention at funeral services. The body is only a house in which you live for a while. Human life in the body is at best a short affair. “As for man, his days are as grass.” (Psalm 103:15.) It is too easy to weep if you attach too much importance to the body. Why do you weep ? You weep, because you forget that the influence of Jesus lives on and is not bounded by the tomb. If nothing else had happened, the influence of Jesus would have lived on in the lives of those who knew him and would have made the world better for his presence in it. This is called the immortality of influence, and while it is not the full Christian teaching, it is as far as some people can go. Some people intend that the good example which they had given should live on in the lives of their children. “By means of his faith he still speaks, even though he is dead.” (Hebrews 11:4.) Why do you weep ? You weep, because you lacked faith in Jesus’s own words about eternal life. As was said of the disciples, “They still did not understand the scripture which said that he must rise from death.” (John 20:9.) Easter proclaims something more than that the influence of Jesus lived on. It proclaims the faith that Jesus lived on. Belief in eternal life comes not by argument but by faith. Your faith could rest on these things: Jesus said it was so. “In my father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you.” (John 14:2.) We have to accept that with the same assurance as any of the moral precepts of Jesus. Our faith rest on the fact that Jesus himself gave ample evidence that he had a life beyond the grave. You may not understand how it happened, yet no fact in the New Testament is better supported. To the most doubting of the disciples the risen Lord said: “Do you believe because you see me ? How happy are those who believe without seeing me !” (John 20:29.) Our faith rest upon this in that the teaching and the triumph over death of Jesus find confirmation in our own experience as we stand by the tombs of those who have gone. We can stand by an open grave many times in the life, and we cannot believe that God who sent Jesus into the world intends life to end when a fragile thing like the body wears out is destroyed. We have confidence that the God who has cared for us here will care for us beyond the bounds of vision. The Christian has good answers to the question of the angels. He believes in eternal life. His God wipes away all tears. Sweet Sound of Freedom In the life of every nation we can not emphasize enough the importance of the experience of freedom. We can see it as a driving force of history over the limits of any pragmatic argument. This is a spiritual dimension that is more than you can sweep under the rug of reason. Hungarians of the 19th century had a great expression of this basic human desire when after long and disastrous Turkish, then Austrian occupation were provoked into an uprising with the leadership of Louis Kossuth, the “father of Hungarian Independence” in 1848. March 15 is the day to remember those heroes whose sacrifice could not be ridiculed by even 50 years of Communist dictatorship. We Christians treasure the memories of those who reflected upon the great self sacrifice of the Lord for all the people who dare to believe in him, and the values He represented may have been adored by. Picture of Louis Kossuth, the Father of the 1848 Hungarian War of Independence Rev. Péter Tóth, Norrige, II.
