What was the apostles’ initial reaction when the women returned from the tomb with news that Jesus had risen? Was it joy? Celebration? Wonder? Did they embrace each other in scarcely contained excitement? No, not a bit of it. According to Luke’s Gospel (24:11), ‘they dismissed the women’s words, for their message seemed to them like so much nonsense’. Many – indeed most people – have reacted similarly since. It’s a lovely thought, they say, but it simply can’t be true. The world just isn’t like that. I completely understand such a response, for belief in the resurrection flies in the face of the tenets and discoveries of our modern scientific age. But sometimes – as the following reflection from my book Touching the Seasons makes clear, taking as its starting point someone who is indeed telling a tall story – we have to be open to our knowledge, our grasp of reality, being incomplete.
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The tall story
I didn’t take him seriously,
for he was clearly spinning a yarn,
the claims so extravagant they were laughable,
each more far-fetched than the next.
So I dismissed his words as so much nonsense,
too fanciful to swallow.
It was the same centuries earlier:
women rushing from the tomb,
bubbling over with news of the resurrection,
only for their words to be dismissed as nonsense,
even by the disciples,
the message seeming beyond belief,
too good to be true.
Though I need to be sceptical sometimes, Lord,
rather than believe everything I hear,
save me from closing my mind too easily
to what’s beyond my experience.
Though I struggle at times with the idea of resurrection,
so much causing me to question,
remind me of the way you changed
the lives of the apostles
and of countless others since,
transforming doubt to faith,
sorrow to joy
and fear to confidence.
Meet me, then, through the risen Christ,
so that, incredible though it may seem,
I may know him for myself,
and share his life,
now and for evermore.
Amen.