An extract from the Easter sermon of the Dean
Despite the gaps and inconsistences in their stories our witnesses agree on a simple, yet amazing discovery: Jesus is alive.
Neither Mary Magdalene or Paul of Tarsus expected to discover that.
Mary had come to the tomb of Jesus to finish the burial preparations for her beloved prophet. She is so immersed in her grief, and so disinclined to discover a living Jesus, that she does not even recognise him when she encounters him in the garden.
Paul, on the other hand, knows all about the rumours of Jesus having been raised to life and is determined to stamp out this nonsense, and arrest anyone who believes it. By his own account in 1 Corinthians 15 and Galatians 1, Paul was trying to eradicate this nonsense from the face of the earth.
Even now, some 2,000 years later, we are still coming to terms with the implications of the amazing truth they each discovered, and which lies at the heart of our Easter celebrations.
Death was not the end of Jesus.
God raised Jesus up and took him deep into God’s own life.
And that same transformation is available to us, right now, even before we die.
I cannot prove that to anyone, but this is what we celebrate today, and that is the message of the church across the millennia—and here in Grafton right now.
Christ is risen. Alleluia! He is risen indeed. Alleluia!
The full text of this sermon is available online.