Easter - It's in the Details

There are certain passages of the Bible that you can read time and time again and you read them for the 50th time and something hits you anew. Most of us have read the Easter Story over and over again. So there is probably little I can tell you about it. However, I learnt something new about it this year that I wanted to pass on!

John 20: 3-9

3So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus' head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. 8Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9(They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.)

I’ve read this passage many times and the two things that have struck me are these. Why does it mention that the cloth that covered Jesus’ head was folded up separately? Why does the other disciple go into an open tomb and suddenly believe, especially as we are also told that the still did not understand that Jesus had to rise from the dead. I think I would have a pile of questions not a belief!! Where was Jesus, who has got his body, why has someone removed his clothes?

Perhaps it’s just me, but even if I had thought he had come back from the dead I would have been thinking - OK Jesus has risen from the dead- and the first thing he did was to rip off his grave clothes but then stop to neatly fold up the napkin that was around his head? So why weren’t the disciples thinking that? They weren’t thinking that because the knew things that I didn’t! The disciples lived in a culture that I simply don’t know enough about.

In order to understand the significance of the folded napkin, we have to understand a little bit about Hebrew culture of the day. The folded napkin had to do with the Master and Servant, and every Jewish boy knew this. When the servant set the dinner table for the master, he made sure that it was exactly the way the master wanted it. The table was furnished perfectly, and then the servant would wait, just out of sight, until the master had finished eating, and the servant would not dare touch that table, until the master was finished.
Now if the master were done eating, he would rise from the table, wipe his fingers, his mouth, and clean his beard, and would wad up that napkin and toss it onto the table.
The servant would then know to clear the table. For in those days, the wadded napkin meant, "I'm finished.." But if the master got up from the table, and folded his napkin, and laid it beside his plate, the servant would not dare touch the table, because..........

The folded napkin meant,

"I'm coming back!"

So the disciples didn’t think the grave had been robbed - the clear message that had been left for them in the tomb was “I’m Back!!”

Don't put off the Big Stuff

I want to tell you about my best friend Rob. As best friends go he was at the top of the tree. We first met when we were about 12. We went to the local church youth group together and hit it off straight away. One of the most noticeable things about our friendship was that we had nothing in common. On the surface at least. We would go for months and months and see each other each day, we talked for hours, but I’m not sure what about. We never had an argument. We both went to church though I’m not too sure what our faith was like back then. In our late teens Rob started to drift away from church. We didn’t have too many deep conversations back than but I remember clearly one we had. It was a Sunday night as Rob collected me after church to go out for the evening. He said that church didn’t fit well into his lifestyle at the moment. When he wanted to be out drinking, sleeping with his girlfriend and so on the church was saying he was wrong. He went on to say that when he was in his mid thirties, settled down with a wife and a few kids he would come back to church. Then it would fit in with his lifestyle and things would be great.

I can see him saying it now, “when I’m in my mid thirties I will come back to church“. Rob died at the age of 34. He never came back to church, though who knows if he came back to God. Rob contracted MS and in what seemed like the blink of an eye he was gone.

There are decisions in life that need to be made. Yet we put them off and muddle through. If we got a letter from government to say we were owed £1millon in back taxes and other repayments we might find it difficult to believe. We might dream and convince ourselves that it’s true and think of all the things we’d spend the money on. We might put on our rational hat and say that it can’t possibly be true as we’ve never paid £100k in taxes let alone a £million. However until you pick up the phone and ask them you’ll never know for sure. Wouldn’t you want to do everything you could to see if it were true?

The Bible claims some incredible things. In the two thousand years since they were written none of it’s claims have been disproved. Doesn’t that say quite a lot? People try to discredit the Bible for they know if they can’t the claims of the Bible mean that they would seriously have to change their life. Man would no longer be the greatest force in the universe and perhaps we’d have to be a little less self orientated. If the Bible were no more than a self-help guide on how to live our lives it would still be a brilliant book. Surely most of us would agree that it is better to love than to hate, to give rather than receive, live in peace rather than go to war, to tell the truth rather than to lie, to forgive rather than harbour grudges, to put people first rather than be selfish, to be faithful rather than be faithless, to honour people rather than be disrespectful. These are great ideals by which to live your life and if more of us did the world would certainly be a better place. But what if there was more to the Bible than just a life instruction manual. What if what it claims actually was true? Don’t you think it might be worth checking out? What if the world was created, if we do need forgiveness, if Jesus has paid the price for us? What if there really is a heaven and hell, a right way to live and a wrong way? Don’t you think it might be worth looking into, asking friends who do believe to explain what they believe and why? Ask questions by commenting here or join an ALPHA group.

We could put all these questions off until tomorrow. But what if, like Rob, we never have the chance to come back and check it out? Don’t put off until tomorrow what you could start today.

Peace

We're told in Phillipians 4: 7

“And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

I had always understood that this meant that it was a peace from God that we couldn't understand. Although this still remains true (at least for me) I now understand it differently and to me it makes much more sense.

We all have questions, problems and things we can't work out. We are all on a journey to find answers. Why did God allow this? Is this right or is it this? What does God what me to do? Some of us have questions and worries that keep us awake at night and ruin our days. Sometimes when we find the answer to a question that has been on our mind we heave a huge sigh of relief and for a while we are at peace. We’ve had our question answered and we are satisfied, at least for a while, until the3 next one pops up. When it talks in Philippians about God's peace transcending (passes) all understanding it is talking about a peace that comes without the need for the question to be answered. It's saying that we don't need to find understanding, we don't need to lie awake at night with those questions going around in our head. God's peace replaces the need to ask why? True peace from God is like the peace you'd find when all your questions and worries have been answered, but without the need to have them answered. In some ways we need to cling on to God for that peace. We need to surrender to Him saying that I will seek your peace, not the answers to my questions. At the end of the day God's peace is something real and tangible and worth seeking. If we continue to look for answers we will always have something missing. Now don't get me wrong, there are things that we can find answers to and it is right for us to look for them and to ask others and to seek God for them. This, however should be a short journey. I believe that we are not meant to spend our lives seeking answers, for to some questions there are no answers to be found this side of heaven. It will just be a frustrating and fruitful pursuit. We need to trust God and seek his peace that bypasses the need to find an answer. Let all your strivings cease and accept God’s peace. Keep those thoughts, those questions, captive and may the peace of God become a reality in your lives.