From my book No Ordinary Man, a meditation for this season of Easter, reflecting on the apostles’ initial struggle to believe what seemed to them a foolish fancy.
They said he was alive!
Read
Returning from the tomb, they related everything to the eleven and those gathered with them – it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and other women with them who told it to the Apostles – but their words seemed like a foolish fancy, and they did not believe them. Luke 24:9-11
The meditation of Peter, James and John
Peter: They said he was alive! Can you believe that?
John: All right, I know they were upset, cut up about what had happened.
James: But then, we all were, each one of us.
Peter: We’d all loved him.
John: We’d all believed he was someone special.
James: We’d all hoped he was the one we were waiting for.
Peter: And we were crushed by what had happened, utterly devastated.
John: We understood how they felt.
Peter: But you have to face facts, don’t you?
John: It’s no good burying your head in the sand and pretending the
worst hasn’t happened.
James: There’s no point trying to fool yourself when you know the truth
full well.
Peter: And we knew, believe me.
John: We’d seen him crying out in agony.
James: We’d heard him draw his last breath.
Peter: And we’d been there when they laid him in the tomb.
James: At a distance, true – keeping well out of sight, just in case.
John: But he was dead, there’s no question about that.
Peter: So what were they playing at, those women, claiming he’s alive?
John: They didn’t seriously expect any of us to swallow it, surely?
Peter: I guess they’d finally gone over the edge, lost their marbles?
James: Women! We might have guessed they’d go under in a crisis.
John: No wonder Jesus stuck to men for his disciples – clear-headed,
realistic, down to earth, sensible.
Peter: Jesus alive! We’d like to believe it, of course we would.
John: But it’s nonsense, any fool can see that.
Prayer
Lord Jesus Christ,
when we read about your resurrection sometimes,
like the first disciples, we feel it is almost too good to be true.
We want to believe it but we are afraid to,
afraid it may all be wishful thinking.
But again, like those first disciples, we have experienced your risen power,
we have been confronted by your living presence –
we know the truth of resurrection
not because we have been told about it
but because we have experienced it.
Lord Jesus Christ, we have news to share.
Help us to share it!
Amen.