The Resurrection of Christ

Happy Easter! Yes we are still in the days of Easter. The Church in her wisdom gives us 7 weeks to take in, absorb and process the Resurrection which culminates in Pentecost Sunday. Pentecost marks the moment that the Holy Spirit invites the early Christian Church and ourselves today to embrace the Resurrection power behind what they and we have been witnessing and hearing about for those last 7 weeks.

The Resurrection of Christ needs a ginormous amount of time and space to reconcile with the reality of our lives. This was clearly evident when after 3 resurrection appearances which Peter personally witnessed, he suddenly stood up and said, “I’m goin fishin!”. And so we ask ourselves how can that possibly be a legitimate response to having been in the center of at least 3 or more miraculous resurrection events? And yet it is actually this very human response as recorded in the Gospels which underscores for us the authenticity of the resurrection appearances. We do not find Peter kneeling on the stone floor of the upper room in an ecstatic trance awaiting the Lord’s next arrival. Instead we encounter him as slightly agitated, impatient, and probably still reeling from battle fatigue as he declares in a moment of perplexity, “I’m goin fishin!”. And where do we find Jesus?On the beach.