Due to the season, extra time is spent by many pondering the reality and the meaning of Christ’s resurrection. Some even deny its bodily aspect. Here are some thoughts on the resurrection of Jesus Christ out from among the dead.
“After death something new begins, over which all powers of the world of death have no more might.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
Note this powerful image on the Resurrection:
“When they had ended their prayers, the Angel of Death recovered his loquacity and his gayety and ascending the chariot again, preceded by Gil Gil, spoke as follows.
'The village you see on that mountain is Gethsemane. In it was the Garden of Olives. On the other side you can distinguish an eminence crowned by a temple which stands out against a starry sky - that is Golgotha. There I passed the greatest day of my existence. I thought I had vanquished God himself - and vanquished he was for some hours. But, alas! on that mount, too, it was that three days later I saw myself disarmed and my power brought to naught on the morning of a certain Sunday. Jesus had risen from the dead. There, too, took place on the same occasion my great single combat with Nature. There took place my duel with her, that terrible duel (at the third hour of the day, I remember it well), when, as soon as she saw me thrust the lance of Longinus in the breast of the Saviour she began to throw stones at me, to upturn the cemeteries, to bring the dead to life, and I know not what besides. I thought poor Nature had lost her senses.'
The Angel of Death seemed to reflect for a moment... ("The Friend of Death")”
Pedro Antonio de Alarcón, Ghostly By Gaslight.
A former Chaplain of the United States Senate and immigrant from Scotland wrote:
“No tabloid will ever print the startling news that the mummified body of Jesus of Nazareth has been discovered in old Jerusalem. Christians have no carefully embalmed body enclosed in a glass case to worship. Thank God, we have an empty tomb. The glorious fact that the empty tomb proclaims to us is that life for us does not stop when death comes. Death is not a wall, but a door.” Peter Marshall.
Here's a gem:
“You see, the bodily resurrection of Jesus isn't a take-it-or-leave-it thing, as though some Christians are welcome to believe it and others are welcome not to believe it. Take it away, and the whole picture is totally different. Take it away, and Karl Marx was probably right to accuse Christianity of ignoring the problems of the material world. Take it away, and Sigmund Freud was probably right to say that Christianity is a wish-fulfillment religion. Take it away, and Friedrich Nietzsche was probably right to say that Christianity was a religion for wimps. Put it back, and you have a faith that can take on the postmodern world that looks to Marx, Freud and Nietzsche as its prophets, and you can beat them at their own game with the Easter news that the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” N.T. Wright, For All God's Worth: True Worship and the Calling of the Church
Please keep this warning from Paul in mind as we celebrate Christs’ Resurrection.
1Cor. 15:17 “And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins!”
Copyright © 2016 Larry Lilly
Click Oral Deckard for great IT work.
“After death something new begins, over which all powers of the world of death have no more might.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
Note this powerful image on the Resurrection:
“When they had ended their prayers, the Angel of Death recovered his loquacity and his gayety and ascending the chariot again, preceded by Gil Gil, spoke as follows.
'The village you see on that mountain is Gethsemane. In it was the Garden of Olives. On the other side you can distinguish an eminence crowned by a temple which stands out against a starry sky - that is Golgotha. There I passed the greatest day of my existence. I thought I had vanquished God himself - and vanquished he was for some hours. But, alas! on that mount, too, it was that three days later I saw myself disarmed and my power brought to naught on the morning of a certain Sunday. Jesus had risen from the dead. There, too, took place on the same occasion my great single combat with Nature. There took place my duel with her, that terrible duel (at the third hour of the day, I remember it well), when, as soon as she saw me thrust the lance of Longinus in the breast of the Saviour she began to throw stones at me, to upturn the cemeteries, to bring the dead to life, and I know not what besides. I thought poor Nature had lost her senses.'
The Angel of Death seemed to reflect for a moment... ("The Friend of Death")”
Pedro Antonio de Alarcón, Ghostly By Gaslight.
A former Chaplain of the United States Senate and immigrant from Scotland wrote:
“No tabloid will ever print the startling news that the mummified body of Jesus of Nazareth has been discovered in old Jerusalem. Christians have no carefully embalmed body enclosed in a glass case to worship. Thank God, we have an empty tomb. The glorious fact that the empty tomb proclaims to us is that life for us does not stop when death comes. Death is not a wall, but a door.” Peter Marshall.
Here's a gem:
“You see, the bodily resurrection of Jesus isn't a take-it-or-leave-it thing, as though some Christians are welcome to believe it and others are welcome not to believe it. Take it away, and the whole picture is totally different. Take it away, and Karl Marx was probably right to accuse Christianity of ignoring the problems of the material world. Take it away, and Sigmund Freud was probably right to say that Christianity is a wish-fulfillment religion. Take it away, and Friedrich Nietzsche was probably right to say that Christianity was a religion for wimps. Put it back, and you have a faith that can take on the postmodern world that looks to Marx, Freud and Nietzsche as its prophets, and you can beat them at their own game with the Easter news that the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” N.T. Wright, For All God's Worth: True Worship and the Calling of the Church
Please keep this warning from Paul in mind as we celebrate Christs’ Resurrection.
1Cor. 15:17 “And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins!”
Copyright © 2016 Larry Lilly
Click Oral Deckard for great IT work.
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