I wish I could tell you the name of our English tour guide at the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem last year. He’s obviously the star of the following Vinebranch Easter Day video. After nine days of looking at ruins and relics, I greatly appreciated his perspective: “And that’s what it’s all about, really: Jesus coming into us. Not us going to visit him in a tomb.”
Speaking of Easter, I couldn’t agree more with Tom Wright’s words about resurrection from this recent interview. Believing in the bodily resurrection of Jesus, difficult though it may be for some, is not an “optional extra”:
Anyone who is in any sense a Christian cannot with any consistency believe that Jesus stayed dead. I have friends and colleagues who I know to be praying Christians who worship regularly and lead lives of practical Christian love and service but who really struggle with the bodily resurrection. I would say that looks like a muddled Christian who needs to be put straight. Of course some of them would say exactly that about me!
But if you say Jesus died and nothing happened but the disciples had some interesting ideas, then you have cut off the branch on which all classic Christianity is sitting. This generation needs to wake up, smell the coffee and realise serious Christianity begins when Jesus comes out of the tomb on Easter morning. This is not a nice optional extra for those who like believing in funny things.