Peace be with you!

It was late that Sunday evening, and the disciples were gathered together behind locked doors, because they were afraid of the Jewish authorities. Then Jesus came and stood among them. "Peace be with you," he said. After saying this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples were filled with joy at seeing the Lord. Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father sent me, so I send you." Then he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. ( John 20:19-22 GNT)

As St Augustine says, "we are an Easter People and alleluia is our song." Authentic Christianity hinges on the belief handed down from the disciples that Jesus did indeed rise from the dead after being killed on Good Friday. For us it is what marks him out as more than just a wise man who had a way with words. Because resurrection can only be achieved using God's power.

I guess some of us need proof of this and some question it. And this is the what Gamaliel the high priest himself wrestled with, when he was being asked to imprison Jesus' followers. He said this: "....so in this case, I tell you, do not take any action against these men. Leave them alone! If what they have planned and done is of human origin, it will disappear, but if it comes from God, you cannot possibly defeat them. You could find yourselves fighting against God!” Full passage here Acts 5:34-39 GNT.

For me that is one of the proofs that Jesus is the Son of God, if he was just a Charismatic holy man leading a sect it would have died out. A couple of thousand years later no one would have known about it. Instead from the seed of Jesus life, death and resurrection and of a crew of 12 hand picked misfits Christianity has been formed. As Gamaliel says it has to come from God. It has to come from God to have survived the folly and mistakes we have made in the name of religion. The Holy Spirit is the soul or animator of the church and makes it come out of disaster into victory when we let it. It leads us out of darkness into His wonderful light.

So I put it to you that the hand of God is on history and also on our lives today. We can't always see it but it is there. Imagine spray painting with your child...you get your little one to stretch out their fingers on the paper and spray paint their hand and the paper. When she removes her hand the shape is there but the hand is not. But we can understand that her hand was there originally because we can see the silhouette! Well human history is like that we can't always visibly see God, but we can understand by the imprints left on our lives and the lives of others. The times of grace and of awareness of his presence.

There were over 500 witnesses to the presence of the risen Jesus. That is considerably more than would be needed for a court of law to say that it was proved beyond reasonable doubt. How many witnesses do we need to believe?

Are you a scoffer? Maybe not ... if you are this is what God has to say "look you scoffers! Be astonished and die! For what I am doing today is something you will not believe even when someone explains it to you!" Acts 13.41

Dear Jesus, renew my knowledge of you. Let me receive the Holy Spirit into my life and may it melt my doubt and strengthen my faith. Help me please, I pray, to move forward from this day seeking your love and sharing your peace. Amen