Not everybody, and certainly not all Christians, suspend their belief in science to embrace as fact the variety of miracles that are included in the Bible, the resurrection being one of them. However, as Christians we do have to grapple theologically with them. Here are my thoughts on Easter in the form of a question:Which is Easier?

Is it easier to say to “Be healed” or to say “Your sins are forgiven”?

            he asked the skeptics in the crowd.

So for those who do not believe he added, “Be healed.”

He did not say “Be cured”

But, to be healed

            From the inside out.

            That is what happens when first we hear

                        “Your sins are forgiven.”

 Is it easier to say “He rose from the dead” or to say “Love wins”?

            he asks the skeptics in the crowd

Those who have known the brunt of oppression for

          the color of their skin,

          the size of their earnings or lack thereof

          the women and children overlooked, overrun, overwhelmed.

To believe in tangible miracles is the easy part.

But, to believe while confronted with continual sorrows in our village,

          raging wars driven by the egos of men with their greed

                        for land, resources and toys,

To believe that this too is powerless in the face of love that

            it has no weight in the grand scheme of it all, that

Love is the remedy, the antidote for the sins of the world,    

Well, this defies the imagination in our too-small minds.

To believe that righteous people in a community world-wide could

            remind us of our resemblance to the divine,

                                    when we lay aside weaponry and bigotry

                                    Well, this reveals a massive disbelief in our own goodness.

Better to believe in the resurgence of a deadbeat heart

            the revival of drowned cells

            grown cold for three days

                   than to believe in Love’s power and might.

Better to believe that dead men walk and talk and

            eat a platter of fish at a Sunday meal

                        at a table with grief-stricken friends

                        than to believe that we can do greater things than he.

Better to believe in linen-clad tomb angels who guard emptiness

            while the hero returns triumphant       

            enjoying the welcome all returning heroes deserve

                        than to believe that, in the end, it is Love that wins.

Which is easier to believe?

            a dead hero overcomes death by a miraculous impossible  feat? Or,      

    that  Love’s power overcomes our deepest fears? That

            a singular, particular hero achieved the impossible or

                  that Love has no end and death has no power?

                                Which is easier do you suppose?      

 

This Easter season my prayer is that you may believe, truly believe in Love's power. Rev Bev