334 SE Tecumseh Road  P.O. Box 5  Tecumseh, Kansas 66542  (785) 379-5005  Fax - (785) 379-5061

Contact Us: | E-mail | Map & Directions

Dangling from a wire Acts 10:34-43, 1 Corinthians 15:19-26  We went to the Passion Play in Eureka Springs once. Having spent more than thirty years in the theatre as a director and teacher, I’m prone to being far too critical of the staging and acting in many productions. And so, what I remember about the Eureka resurrection scene is this: off in the distance is the actor portraying Jesus, obviously wearing a special harness with a hook in back, dangling in mid-air from a very visible wire. There went my ‘suspension of disbelief’, the phrase which describes our ability and willingness to go along with the make-believe world of the stage. What I remember is the falseness of the resurrection scene, the actor hanging there from that steel wire.  Come to think of it, the scriptural account of the resurrection is also hard to understand and to accept on human terms, isn’t it? We want to be able to fully explain just how it took place – what it looked like, how Jesus did come out of that tomb, and what kind of engineering and physics were involved in the ascension of Jesus to heaven. It just doesn’t seem very logical or scientific. Then again, neither were Jesus’ many healings, his feeding of the 5,000, or that other resurrection account of the raising of Lazarus. In the apostle Peter’s account of the resurrection, God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses. (Acts 10:40) God allowed Jesus to appear, and then only to a select few people.  Even those witnesses who had the personal, first-hand, face-to-face encounter with the risen Christ did not fully grasp that which had taken place. And that in spite of the fact that Jesus had, on several occasions, foretold of his death and resurrection!  The resurrection is God’s greatest miracle, and it is the very essence of our faith. For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being. (1Cor.15:21) As Christians, we are made alive in Christ (1 Cor. 15:22) and it is that Christ who commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead. (Acts 10:42) Ordained by God, not by humans. Resurrected by God, not by humans.   I cannot explain the engineering or physics of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, but I nonetheless have faith in the reality and truth of the resurrection. My faith is not dependent upon a steel wire from which Jesus dangles in mid-air, but instead is grounded in the miracle that is our Easter story. Let us celebrate this most miraculous gift from God, the Creator and Redeemer. Christ has risen. Alleluia.  - Pastor Piet - April 8, 2007: Easter Sunday