As Anna and I walk in our garden what we receive is a sense of fullness of life, that surrounds us with the earth giving us the flowers and fruits in abundance!
It was a similar experience for some women and disciples of Jesus who went to visit the tomb of Jesus on the third day after Jesus was crucified and buried. They met an angel, met with Jesus and received instruction from Jesus to make it known to others that He had risen!
There are a few captivating scenes in connection with the resurrection of Jesus and the disciples becoming awakened to anew reality!
1. He is not here (Mat.28:6)
The announcement by an angel was that, 'He is going before you to Galilee, there you will see him..'(v7).
Jesus after His resurrection was returning to the place that He spent his youthful years. He was known as the Galilean.
We live among people who search for God and wait for an encounter experience with God. We find pilgrims flocking to shrines, temples, mosques, monasteries or places erected to bring people together to affirm their faith journey.
In a town twenty kilometres away from our village is the famous Malyattoor Church where hundreds come during the Holy Week, carrying a cross on their shoulder to relive the 'way of the cross' that Jesus was made to take to Golgotha. All the pilgrims abandon the cross at the premises of that Church and return after this symbolic walk!
For many it is a faith journey to find and meet with Jesus of Nazareth. I remember asking a few pilgrims about the experience of this journey. They recollect it as a devout and sacred experience, but not certain whether it ended with an encounter with Jesus.
Jesus is necessarily not in the usual places that we seek for Him.
I remember some difficult situations in life, when I kept searching for a visitation from God!
This search is a necessary state of mind which brings a surprise. 'And behold Jesus met them and greeted them..'(v.9)
This is the character of the good shepherd, that He goes out searching for the missing sheep. It is true that we search for God, but God is in searches of us. This is the consolation of faith in Jesus. He finds us while we search for Him.
Jesus is not here, but He shall find us while we are on journey to find Him. This is love, grace, and peace at work, which is the triune character of God.
2. Messengers of deceit (Mat.28:11-15)
The Chief priest having come to know from the guards that Jesus had risen, paid a large amount of money to proclaim that, 'His disciples came by night and stole Him away while we were asleep'(v.13).
We find two groups of people in this resurrection story. The women and the disciples to whom Jesus appeared while going to Galilee, who became messengers of truth and new life afterwards. The guards became deceivers concealing the truth. They needed just some money to propagate a cover up story.
This is the conflict that we have within the Church universal. The materially conscious Church leadership and their followers who seek for authority and visibility in contrast to the pursuit of living incarnationally among people. And a minority within the Church and outside, seek after Jesus and live to testify to the truth eternal in Jesus.
The reassembly of the eleven disciples in the mountain tells us something we tend to overlook. 'And when they saw Him, they worshipped him, but some were doubtful' (v.17). Let this make us ponder over the substance of thefaith journey. Even after having been with Jesus for over three years and accompanied Him to hear his teachings, witness His miracles and meet HSim after resurrection, some disciples were still doubtful.
I hope we would come to accept this as normal. It is only by grace we can hold on to this faith in God amidst intense experiences of pain and alienation we go through.
To live this life looking unto God, is another gift we are given. The risk of slipping out of this faith journey is high.
The consolation is found in the words of Jesus, 'I am with you always..'(v.20)
3. The hope for those in doubt (Luke 24:13-35)
Cleopas and his friend were on the journey to Emmaus from Jerusalem on the third day after the crucifixion of Jesus, talking between themselves about what they heard, after they were told about the resurrection of Jesus. They verified by going to the tomb and found it empty (v19-24). Jesus who joined them during this conversation, whom they did not recognise spoke to them, 'beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures'(v27). Jesus on their invitation joined them to stay as it was evening. At supper Jesus broke bread and blessed the meal. That was when they recognised Him to be Jesus, who vanished from their presence instantly.
While returning to Jerusalem after this meeting with Jesus, the travellers talked to each other : 'Were not our hearts burning within ourselves while He was speaking to us on the road, while He was explaining the Scriptures to us' (v.32)! The announcement they made to the disciples whom they met at Jerusalem was, 'The Lord has really risen and has appeared to Simon'(v34).
There were three significant thoughts that I found in this passage today.
The two travellers were confused and could not comprehend the truth with their finite mind. They were so confused that they could not recognise the stranger to be Jesus. Their level of perception and consciousness was clouded. A state of confusion generates diminished perceptual skills. It is strange that during the seven mile journey, the two travellers could not recover from the cloudiness of their mind. They listened but did not perceive the truth in its entirety.
Secondly, when the consciousness dawned on them that the stranger was Jesus, Jesus disappeared from their midst. We humans cannot often have a prolonged proximity to Jesus, as in the words of a saint, 'we can take in only little of God and can still live' . This reminds us that our longing for revelation of God while can be genuine, it is good to be satisfied with glimpses of God now and then. During such experiences there is so much of God's goodness radiating to us that we ought to be content with what has been given, rather than long for more. Someone referred to it as spiritual greed. When God visits us there is an inner wakefulness that would last long.
Thirdly, the two doubters became messengers of the good news of the resurrection of Jesus. They related their experiences on the road and how they recognised Jesus during the breaking of bread. William Barclay in his version of the order of worship of the Eucharist, refers to this Biblical passage in the liturgy appropriately, to prepare the worshippers for the Lord's supper to become a means of 'knowing Jesus'! Every time we bow our hearts before God in prayer, we are creating space for God to meet with us. That is why the contemplatives advocates regular times of short silence periods even during our work. It is one way of offering space to God amidst the outward activities for God consciousness to grow within.
Rev Dr Henry Nouwen referred to this as 'our silence entering into the silence of God'.
I needed this reminder for myself as I live with fainting hope, due to multiple difficulties at my work place.
4. He opened their minds to understand (Luke 24:45)
Jesus appeared to the disciples and seeing him they were 'startled and frightened and thought that they were seeing a ghost'(v37). Although Jesus made Himself known to the disciples (v38-41), 'they could not still believe it for joy and were marvelling..' so much so Jesus had to ask them, 'Have you got something to eat' and they gave Him a piece of broiled fish and 'He took it and ate before them'(v41-43).
Those of us, who are seeking for spiritual enlightenment can be inwardly fearful or startled when we have a surprise visitation from God.
It is because of this, Jesus needed to open their minds. The disciples encountered something most unnatural- a person who was buried had risen back to life!
'Fear not' is a usual phrase that we come across in the teachings of Jesus.
When the disciples were caught in a storm, while crossing the sea in a boat, Jesus was asleep in the stern. The disciples woke Him up, saying, 'Do you not care that we are perishing'(Mark4:38). Jesus after stilling the storm asked them,'Why are so timid? How is that you have no faith'!
A psychological perspective is that, fear of death stays deep within most of us in some form or other. It has to do with the 'primal fear' instilled within us at the time of our birth. Between the birth of a child and establishment of the spontaneous respiration, there is a short interval. The count down for spontaneous respiration starts with the ligation of the umbilical cord and its partition. If a child has to take the first breath, the establishment of the cardio-pulmonary function is needed to assist in the taking the first breath. During that ultra short in-between time, a baby hangs between life and death. During my post graduate training when I was involved in observing babies at birth, I remember many babies struggling to establish the first breath. Some babies struggled to breathe and turned blue, needing mechanical assistance to breathe. This or similar experiences in early childhood of deprivation or loss or anxiety seem to leave within us scars of the struggles to live, which psychologists would consider as the origin of fear at least in some situations.
Having been surprised by the sudden arrival of Jesus in their midst the disciples were 'startled and frightened'. Jesus had to 'open' their minds to the ways of God which involved surprises, miracles, and unusual experiences. Did not Moses pause at the sight of a bush burning but not consumed in the fire, which he considered as a marvellous sight (Exo.3:3)!
Our faith journey provides us an increasing familiarity with God and His ways, which helps us to view events in our lives with new understanding and hope. It is then we can come to a position similar to that of Mary, when she said, 'let it be done to me according to your word' (Luke1:38), when the announcement of news that she would bear a son and call Him Jesus, when she was still a virgin.
God is constantly opening our minds to understand and receive His ways into our lives. It was the loss of our daughter Susan to an acute illness which opened our minds leading Anna and myself to the discovery of a vocation for our lives of spending a life time of work with children who were Neuro-developmentally challenged. Now it is the thirty eight year.
Having done poorly in the clinical discussion of a child with Cerebral Palsy in my post graduate examination in Paediatrics , which almost failed me in the examination, I had resolved in my mind that I would have nothing to do with the specialty of neurology in my future years. I was at the application stage to train in Paediatric cardiology at one stage. It was from that direction, God opened my eyes to see a need in a persuasive way from which I could not run away, although I bargained to avoid it for at least two years. Looking back, I feel surprised and marvelled at the way this 'opening of my mind' led me in a direction of associating with about 80,000 families who had children with special needs.
I feel the need for another visitation from God and the opening of my mind to find the way forward at this time in life. The work place where I am involved currently has recently turned out to be a trial far too much for me to endure.
I am caught in a storm! I wait in the storm. That too is formative!
5. Our times are in His hands (John 21:18-24)
The chapter of 21 in John's Gospel is a moving message. To me, the events narrated in this chapter give us a window into the departure plan Jesuneeds had made after His resurrection. He encountered the disciples in the sea shore, after their failure to catch fish. They decided to go back to fishing even after the resurrection of Jesus. Jesus provided them with breakfast and asked them to cast the net into the sea. They had a huge catch. Jesus exhorted Peter with. a question, 'do you love me'!
What followed was even more revealing about the purpose of God for His followers. 'Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to gird yourself and walk wherever you wished; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will gird you and bring you where you do not wish to go' (v.18). It was following this that Peter having known what this meant for him, wanted to know how it would be for John, who too was present on that occasion. To this, Jesus answered, 'If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you! You follow me'.
This is a pointer to the orientation for all those who are on a pilgrim journey of faith as followers of Jesus. Each of us has a call and direction in our lives. That frees us from any state of anxiety. In the words of apostle Paul, 'we live, move and have our being in God'. That is a good enough reason to be content.
The resurrection of Jesus brought a new meaning to our transitory life in the world. It gifts us with a new consciousness of our calling and eternal life!
I remember an instance recently when the general secretary of the Evangelical Fellowship of India wanted to hold its bi-annual conference on the theme of 'bias for the poor'. When he contacted me to inform me about it, I recalled with him a discussion in the ad-hoc committee formed for the formation of the fellowship in 1974. Dr Frank Garlick and I were the members of this small group to discuss and explore the function of a fellowship among medical students and doctors. I remember Dr Garlick getting in touch with Dr Douglas Johnson, the general secretary of the Inter-varsity Fellowship in Britain. Dr Johnson was the one, who facilitated the formation of the Christian Medical Fellowship in Britain, to create a forum for the medical professionals of the Inter-varsity Fellowship. In his letter he said to Dr Garlick, 'make it a fellowship of people who follow Jesus of Nazareth. Let it not be an advocacy group on any shades or beliefs of spirituality'.
I remember sharing this with the current general secretary, who replied me in a long letter how he felt justified to advocate for a bias towards the poor in medical work, which to him was the call of the Gospel message. He left no room for discussion or further exploration.
It was then I realised the pain to let of an organisation for which I laboured with Dr Garlick for twenty years. When I saw the drift from being an integrating fellowship for inclusiveness of shades of opinion in spiritual ministry, I felt sad and shaken! I was not even invited to participate in the on-line conference that was held after this.
Yes, our times are in God's hands. We would need to grow up by letting go off, even what seems significant. A pilgrim is one learns to let go of all that seemed to be important. What is needed to hold on to Love, Faith and Hope, of which Love precedes over the others in the words of St Paul in I Corinthians 13. I have my struggles to practice this although I feel the call to live loving!
M.C.Mathew(text and photo)
No comments:
Post a Comment