Is Easter Real? #4 – Given to Love:
The New Community and Mother Teresa
Tom Holmes 14 05 11
(1Peter 2:21 For God called you to do good, even if it means suffering, just as Christ suffered for you. He is your example, and you must follow in his steps. NLT)
The resurrection of Jesus was never observed, cannot be reproduced in a lab and defies any kind of scientific measurement or explanation. However, like the wind which cannot be seen, we can observe its effects.
Three weeks ago, we began a series of five case studies that consider these effects entitled, “Is Easter Real?” with a look at two people mentioned in the Bible, one involving a woman that was very supportive of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and the other of a man who was strongly opposed, Saul of Tarsus. Two weeks ago we considered Simon Peter who we know from the Bible accounts and someone who lived about three hundred years later – Augustine of Hippo. Both of these men became “Big Shots” in the development and history of the church. Last week, we gave thought to those on the Road to Emmaus and C.S. Lewis and how their lives were surprised by Joy. Today we are going to look at the New Community that developed on Pentecost and Mother Teresa. Both were given to love.
Prayer: Gracious and far reaching God, as we consider the lives of others may we see something of ourselves and something of who You are calling us to be. Amen.
About fifty days after Jesus reportedly rose from the dead, his followers were gathered in a room when a series of events began to unfold that culminated in Peter standing before a very large crowd explaining who this Jesus of Nazareth really was and claiming that although executed, he rose from the dead, proof that he was the long awaited Messiah. The Book of Acts claims that some 3,000 believed Peter and became follower of Jesus as well.
Such a large and sudden increase in their numbers could have and in some ways did, create considerable challenges. So what did they do? They did what they knew to do from their cultural and religious traditions. They formed a community not unlike others whose focal point was a rabbi except that their rabbi was not with them. They committed themselves to the rabbi’s teaching, spending time together, supporting one another and sharing what they had. There is little doubt that those gathered on that day experienced something that changed their lives and that that change was based in Peter’s report that Jesus had rose from the dead was deemed to be absolutely true. So much did they believe that to be true that many within this group would not only learn to live for Christ but actually laid down their lives for him too. Many suffered persecution and even death for their belief.
The woman who would become Mother Teresa was born Agnes on August 26, 1910 in what is now the capital of Macedonia. As a child she was fascinated with the stories of missionaries and their service in Bengal, and by age 12 had become convinced that she should commit herself to a religious life. She left home at age 18 to join the Sisters of Loreto as a missionary. She took her solemn vows on 14 May 1937, while serving as a teacher at the Loreto convent school in eastern Calcutta. Teresa served there for almost twenty years and in 1944 was appointed headmistress.
On 10 September 1946, Teresa experienced what she later described as “the call within the call” while travelling by train for her annual retreat. “I was to leave the convent and help the poor while living among them. It was an order. To fail would have been to break the faith.”
She began her missionary work with the poor in 1948. She adopted Indian citizenship, spent a few months receiving basic medical training and then ventured out into the slums. Initially she started a school in Calcutta but soon started tending to the needs of the destitute and starving. In the beginning of 1949 she was joined in her effort by a group of young women and laid the foundations to create a new religious community helping the “poorest among the poor”.
Her efforts quickly caught the attention of Indian officials, including the prime minister, who expressed his appreciation.
Teresa wrote in her diary that her first year was filled with difficulties. She had no income and had to resort to begging for food and supplies. She experienced doubt, loneliness and the temptation to return to the comfort of convent life during these early months. She wrote in her diary:
“Our Lord wants me to be a free nun covered with the poverty of the cross. Today I learned a good lesson. The poverty of the poor must be so hard for them. While looking for a home I walked and walked till my arms and legs ached. I thought how much they must ache in body and soul, looking for a home, food and health. Then the comfort of Loreto [her former order] came to tempt me. ‘You have only to say the word and all that will be yours again,’ the Tempter kept on saying … Of free choice, my God, and out of love for you, I desire to remain and do whatever be your Holy will in my regard. I did not let a single tear come.”
Teresa received Vatican permission on 7 October 1950 to start the diocesan congregation that would eventually become the Missionaries of Charity. Its mission was to care for, in her own words, “the hungry, the naked, the homeless, the crippled, the blind, the lepers, all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared for throughout society, people that have become a burden to the society and are shunned by everyone.”
In 1952 Mother Teresa opened the first Home for the Dying in space made available by the city of Calcutta. With the help of Indian officials she converted an abandoned Hindu temple into the Kalighat Home for the Dying, a free hospice for the poor. Those brought to the home received medical attention and were afforded the opportunity to die with dignity, according to the rituals of their faith; Muslims were read the Quran, Hindus received water from the Ganges, and Catholics received the Last Rites. “A beautiful death,” she said, “is for people who lived like animals to die like angels—loved and wanted.”
Mother Teresa’s activities at this location became the focal point of a lot of criticism raised against her and her work. The claim was that she was proselytising and yet there is much evidence that she did not. She respected the faith traditions of others. What was really happening was that in her treatment of those in so much need, they saw Christ and without any coercing, many did embrace the Christian faith.
Mother Teresa soon opened a home for those suffering from Hansen’s disease, commonly known as leprosy, and called the hospice City of Peace. The Missionaries of Charity also established several leprosy outreach clinics throughout Calcutta, providing medication, bandages and food.
As the Missionaries of Charity took in increasing numbers of lost children, Mother Teresa felt the need to create a home for them. In 1955 she opened the, the Children’s Home of the Immaculate Heart, as a haven for orphans and homeless youth.
Her efforts were not limited to Calcutta. In 1982, at the height of the Siege of Beirut, Mother Teresa rescued 37 children trapped in a front line hospital by brokering a temporary cease-fire between the Israeli army and Palestinian guerrillas. Accompanied by Red Cross workers, she travelled through the war zone to the devastated hospital to evacuate the young patients.
Mother Teresa died on 5 September 1997. At the time of her death, Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity had over 4,000 sisters, and an associated brotherhood of 300 members, operating 610 missions in 123 countries. These included hospices and homes for people with HIV/AIDS, leprosy and tuberculosis, soup kitchens, children’s and family counselling programs, personal helpers, orphanages, and schools, caring for refugees, the blind, disabled, aged, alcoholics, the poor and homeless, and victims of floods, epidemics, and famine. The Missionaries of Charity were also aided by Co-Workers, who numbered over 1 million by the 1990s.
And, I have only skimmed the surface of her life.
The New Community of Acts 2 survived and flourished at least in part because the community acted as the mother of those within its numbers. They gave themselves over to loving one another. Needs were met, relationships were formed, training was provided and all shared in the blessings and hardships of their new found faith.
Mother Teresa was one of those people who quite literally changed the world. She is the perfect example of why we should never ask the question, “What can I do, I am just one person?” And how did she accomplish so much. Well, it would certainly seem that the risen Christ was very active in and through her and for her part, she gave herself over to loving even the most unlovable and simply acted as a mother to all she met, helped where she could, clothed, fed, cared for and loved with all her heart.
Sometimes it is said of someone that they were a person only a mother could love. How incredibly powerful is a love like that.
Both these case studies included lives forever changed that they would attribute to the reality of a living Christ. Did they believe in the resurrection? I dare say their whole lives came to be defined by it.
Is Easter Real? I believe that the New community and Mother Teresa would respond with an overwhelming, Yes!
Is Eater Real? #3
May 26, 2014
Is Easter Real? #3 – Surprized by Joy:
A Follower on the Road to Emmaus and C. S. Lewis.
Tom Holmes 14 05 04
(Psalm 116: 16 O LORD, I am your servant; yes, I am your servant, born into your household; you have freed me from my chains. NLT)
As I have said each week beginning on Easter Sunday, the resurrection of Jesus was never observed, cannot be reproduced in a lab and defies any kind of scientific measurement or explanation. However, like the wind which cannot be seen, we can observe its effects.
Two weeks ago, we began a series of five case studies that consider these effects entitled, “Is Easter Real?” with a look at two people mentioned in the Bible, one involving a woman that was very supportive of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and the other of a man who was strongly opposed, Saul of Tarsus. Last week we considered Simon Peter who we know from the Bible accounts and someone who lived about three hundred years later – Augustine of Hippo. Both of these men became “Big Shots” in the development and history of the church. Today, we give thought to those on the Road to Emmaus and C.S. Lewis. In future weeks we will look at other people found in the Scriptures along with Mother Teresa and Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
Prayer: Gracious and far reaching God, as we consider the lives of others may we see something of ourselves and something of who You are calling us to be. Amen.
We know the story of those walking home on the day Jesus reportedly rose from the dead. They were his followers. They had witnessed the events surrounding his crucifixion. They were filled with sorrow and despair. They had heard the report that Jesus’ body was missing and that he was alive. Of course, they knew that couldn’t be and that report seemed to simply add more questions. They were so overwhelmed and perplexed by what they had experienced that that was the single topic of conversation. They were no different than you and I in the hours and days following the unexpected death of someone we care for, especially when we discover details that make no sense to us.
As they travelled, they are joined by a stranger. He asks questions and soon he too is engaged in a discussion about Jesus’ death. But this stranger is very knowledgeable and quite forcefully tries to remind them of what the Scriptures say about the Messiah.
He is invited to stay the night with Cleopas and his wife. As they eat, the stranger takes bread, breaks a piece off for himself and then passes it. At that moment, those gathered at the table realize that this stranger is in fact Jesus. At that realization, Jesus disappears and soon those who had just returned to Emmaus were on their way back to Jerusalem to tell the other followers of Jesus that he was indeed alive.
It is interesting that Jesus’ presence wasn’t made real through the scriptures but in a simple ordinary act. What started as a day of mourning and perplexity ended in such a profound joy that they set caution to the wind and travelled back to Jerusalem in darkness.
Clive Staples Lewis was born into a church attending family living in Belfast, on 29 November 1898 that included a brother Warren, four years his senior, a Welch protestant father who was a lawyer and a Irish mother who was the daughter of an Anglican priest. At the age of four, shortly after his dog Jacksie was killed by a car, he announced that his name was now Jacksie. Later he accepted Jack, the name by which he was known to friends and family for the rest of his life.
As a boy, Lewis developed a love for reading and had a fascination with anthropomorphic animals, that is, animals that were given very human traits. He fell in love with Beatrix Potter’s stories and often wrote and illustrated his own. He and his brother created the world of Boxen, inhabited and run by animals.
While much of his education came at the hand of tutors, he did spend some time in boarding schools. It was at such a school after the death of his mother at age 10 and a later respiratory ailment that he turned his back on his Anglican baptism and became an atheist at fifteen.
In his youth Lewis became fascinated with Icelandic sagas and Norse mythology which in turn led him to Greek literature. He was awarded a scholarship to University College, Cambridge but was drafted into the British Army and the First World War before he could begin classes. Between the sectarian violence in Northern Ireland and his experiences on the front, his atheism was confirmed although he didn’t seem to have any trouble being very angry at the God that did not exist.
While a long road, his return to Christianity actually began at age 16 when he read a book called Phantasies by George MacDonald. He commented that this book did for him what the Beatrice Potter books did for him in his youth.
When he returned to Cambridge as a professor, he met J. R. R. Tolkien and G. K. Chesterton and eventually they all became part of a group known as “Inklings” It was through the ongoing discussions with this group that he made the move from being convinced that God didn’t exist to believing God does exist. He tells of the final stage of that move when he writes, “You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalen, night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England.” (Surprised by Joy, pp. 228-229. 1966.)
Lewis fully embraced Christianity in 1931, following a long discussion and late-night walk with his close friends Tolkien and Hugo Dyson. He records making a specific commitment to Christian belief while on his way to the zoo with his brother. He became a member of the Church of England – reportedly somewhat to the disappointment of Tolkien, who had hoped that he would join the Catholic Church.
After the outbreak of the war in 1939, he and his brother took child evacuees from London and other cities into the suburbs of Belfast
Because he was only 40 when the war started, Lewis tried to re-enter military service, offering to instruct cadets, but his offer was not accepted. He, in turn, rejected the recruiting office’s suggestion of writing newspaper columns for the Ministry of Information because he did not want to “write lies” to deceive the enemy. He later served in the local Home Guard in Oxford.
From 1941 to 1943 Lewis spoke on widely appreciated religious programmes broadcast by the BBC from London while the city was under periodic air raids.
In Lewis’s later life, he corresponded with and later met Joy Davidman Gresham, an American writer of Jewish background, a former Communist, and a convert from atheism to Christianity. She was separated from her alcoholic and abusive husband, and came to England with her two sons. Lewis at first regarded her as an agreeable intellectual companion and personal friend. He married her in 1956 in a civil so that she could continue to live in the UK. However, after complaining of a painful hip, she was diagnosed with terminal bone cancer, and the relationship developed to the point that they sought a Christian marriage. Joy being divorced, was a significant problem in the Church of England at the time, but a friend, the Rev. Peter Bide, performed the ceremony at her bed in the Churchill Hospital on 21 March 1957. She died in 1960 and C. S. Lewis, Jack, followed suit three years later on Nov. 22, 1963, the same day that Kennedy was assassinated.
C. S. Lewis is best known both for his fictional work, especially The Screwtape Letters, The Chronicles of Narnia, and The Space Trilogy, and for his non-fiction Christian apologetics, such as Mere Christianity, Miracles, and The Problem of Pain. The title of his book, Surprised by Joy actually has two references, the woman named Joy and the experience of his conversion.
Those that were on the road to Emmaus that day never saw the resurrection take place but through the breaking of bread encountered the living Christ. C. S. Lewis was not present at the tomb either but he encountered the living Christ through what he read, through a very reluctant encounter with the one in whom he did not believe and through his conversations with others.
And so, I conclude with comments similar to those that I have for the past two weeks. Both these case studies included being surprised by joy and lives forever changed that they would attribute to the living Christ. Did they believe in the resurrection? I dare say their whole life came to be defined by it.
Is Easter Real? I believe that those on the Road to Emmaus and Clive Staples Lewis would respond with an overwhelming, Yes!
Is Easter Real? #2
April 28, 2014
Is Easter Real? #2 – Soon to be Big Shots:
Simon Peter and Augustine of Hippo
Tom Holmes 14 04 27
(Psalm 16: 7, 8 – I will bless the LORD who guides me; even at night my heart instructs me. I know the LORD is always with me. I will not be shaken, for he is right beside me. NLT)
Prayer: Gracious and far reaching God, as we consider the lives of others may we see something of ourselves and something of who God is calling us to be. Amen.
The resurrection of Jesus was never observed, cannot be reproduced in a lab and defies any kind of scientific measurement or explanation. However, like the wind which cannot be seen, we can observe its effects.
Last week, we began a series of five case studies that consider these effects entitled, “Is Easter Real?” with a look at two people mentioned in the Bible, one involving a woman that was very supportive of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and the other of a man who was strongly opposed, Saul of Tarsus. Today, we look at Peter who we know from the Bible accounts and someone who lived about three hundred years later – Augustine of Hippo. Both of these men became “Big Shots” in the development and history of the church. In future weeks we will look at other people found in the Scriptures along with C. S. Lewis, Mother Teresa and Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
Of all the people mentioned in the Gospels, Peter would probably have been the most susceptible to believing Jesus rose from the dead. I say that for two reasons: his character and his experiences.
In the gospels, Peter is the impetuous one. Not only was he the usually the first to jump on the band wagon, he was often the one building it. He was the one that got out of the boat and walked on water. He was the one to first say that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of the living God.
As for his experience, Peter was present at either 5 or 6 post resurrection appearances of Jesus, depending on whether Matthew 28:16-17 and Luke 24: 49-53 are referring to the same or two separate occasions.
In Luke 24:34, Peter sees Jesus at the tomb. In our reading from Matthew today he is present at both appearances to the eleven remaining disciples. In John 21: 1-23, he is one of those gathered at the Sea of Tiberius and the large gatherings referred to in Matthew 28 and Luke 24 make up 5 and or 6.
While Peter’s activities on the day of Pentecost are well known and while he seems to be the focal point of the story in the first part of the book of Acts, much of the rest of his experiences are not recorded for us. According to Christian tradition, Peter was crucified in Rome under Emperor Nero Augustus Caesar. It is traditionally held that he was crucified upside down at his own request, since he saw himself unworthy to be crucified in the same way as Jesus Christ.
Peter, underwent a remarkable transformation because of the post resurrection events. He became a rock solid follower of Christ.
So, how did he become a “Big Shot” of the church? In the early Church there were five major centers or Apostolic Sees of Christianity because they were said to have been founded by the apostles. The sees at Rome and at Antioch (in Syria) were said to have been established by Peter; the see at Constantinople (Byzantium) by Andrew; the see at Alexandria (Egypt) by Mark; and the see at Jerusalem by James. The word ‘see” comes from the Latin for seat, sedes.
As the church became more institutionalised, arguments broke out as to which Apostolic See was the first among equals. It was Jesus’ response to Peter’s confession that opened the door to Peter being elevated to a Big Shot of the church.
“Now I say to you that you are Peter (petros which means ‘rock in the sense of a small stone’), and upon this rock (petra which by comparison means boulder) I will build my church.” It is actually more likely that petra in this case referred to the thought Peter expressed. However, at the time of these discussions, Greek was the language of the learned and the term petros was no longer used and so the camp in Rome argued that these two words were merely synonyms and thus promoted that what Jesus was saying that he would build the church on the man.
Aurelius Augustinus, more commonly referred to as Augustine of Hippo was born in what is now Algeria near Tunis on November 13, 354 of a pagan Roman father and a Christian Berber mother. His mother undertook to bring him up as a Christian, and on one level he always found something attractive about Christ, but for the first 28 years of his life he was far more interested in the attractions of sex, fame, and pride in his own cleverness. After a moderate amount of running around as a teen-ager, he took a mistress, who bore him a son when he was about eighteen. At 19 and a student at Carthage, he read a treatise by Cicero, a Roman philosopher that opened his eyes to the delights of philosophy.
He was very bright and so his father, although not rich sent him off to school. Later, he had sponsors. Augustine lived all of his life in Northern Africa with the exception of the four years he spent in Italy. It was during his time in Milan, where he had become the head professor of philosophy at the local university that he met Ambrose, the local Bishop. It was Ambrose that took time to answer his questions. It was Ambrose that baptised him at Easter of 387 following Augustine’s conversion in 386 and it was Ambrose that would make him bishop of Hippo in 396.
About his conversion, well, we all meet the resurrected Christ in slightly different ways. This hard living, full of himself, intellectual tells us of his encounter in The Confessions which is in effect his autobiography.
In particular, a reading on the life of St. Anthony of the Desert yielded Augustine of Hippo’s final turn towards embracing Christianity in total at the cost of his pending future which included an arranged marriage, a burgeoning career in rhetoric and a privileged life.
As a side note, the first generation of believers included the disciples and the next generation of leaders is referred to as the Church Fathers. One group of the church fathers was the Desert Fathers who for the most part were very bright and very strange. They believed cities were evil and they were called by God to live away from cities, in isolation and to devote themselves to contemplation and prayer for the cities. St. Antony was one for those Desert Fathers.
On day in 386 as Augustine took a break from his studies he heard what he believed to be a young child’s voice:
“‘Take up and read; Take up and read.’” …He continues, “I arose; interpreting it to be no other than a command from God to open the book, and read the first chapter I should find. For I had heard of Antony, that coming in during the reading of the Gospel, he received the admonition, as if what was being read was spoken to him: Go, sell all that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come and follow me: and by such oracle he was forthwith converted unto Thee. Eagerly then I returned to the place where Alypius was sitting; for there had I laid the volume of the Apostle when I arose thence. I seized, opened, and in silence read that section on which my eyes first fell: Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying; but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, in concupiscence (which means lust). No further would I read; nor needed I: for instantly at the end of this sentence, by a light as it were of serenity infused into my heart, all the darkness of doubt vanished away.”
On that fateful day, Augustine met Christ in the voice of a child and then through the words of Scripture.
It was St. Augustine’s brilliant mind and total devotion to Christ that led his to become a “Big Shot in the Church.” His writings lay behind much of the understandings of the Christian faith in the Roman Church and the Reformers like Luther and Calvin used his arguments to justify the Protestant movement. We may have never read any of his works, or even knew his name before today, but I can assure you, our understanding of the Christian faith has been affected by this man who lived 1600 years ago.
Both of these “Soon to be Big Shots” had life changing experiences that they would attribute to the living Christ. Did they believe in the resurrection? I dare say their whole life came to be defined by it.
Is Easter Real? I dare say that Simon Peter and Augustine of Hippo would respond with an overwhelming, Yes!
Is Easter Real?#1
April 21, 2014
#1 Stopped in their Tracks: Mary Magdalene and Saul of Tarsus
Tom Holmes, 14 04 20
Today we celebrate the event from which Christianity stems – the resurrection of Jesus the Christ. In questioning the reality of this event, there are few ways we can ask the question without invoking the notion that all such questions can be only be answered assuming some form of the scientific method – is it observable, repeatable and measurable. But, the resurrection of Jesus was never observed, cannot be reproduced in a lab and defies any kind of scientific measurement or explanation. However, like the wind which cannot be seen we can observe its effects.
Today, we begin a series of five case studies that consider these effects entitled, “Is Easter Real?” with a look at two people mentioned in the Bible, one involving a woman that was very supportive of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and the other of a man who was strongly opposed, Saul of Tarsus. In future weeks we will look at other people found in the Scriptures along with Augustine, C. S. Lewis, Mother Teresa and Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
Two stories, two journeys interrupted, two people, one female the other male, with two very different agendas and two very different perspectives, both on a journey of sorts several years apart.
We have already heard (Matthew 28:1-10) the account of the one – Mary Magdalene, having subjected herself to ceremonial uncleanliness was one of those that touched the dead Jesus of Nazareth, washing his body, applying a few herbs and spices and wrapping his remains in a burial shroud. There wasn’t time before the sunset and Passover began to complete the task at hand and so the two Mary’s decided to leave what was undone until first light after the Sabbath. Work was forbidden on the Sabbath.
She and the other Mary set out before sunrise to complete their task but when they reached their destination – the tomb that had belonged to Joseph of Aramathea – the great sorrow she was carrying was stolen by fear. They were greeted by the ground shaking and the huge stone that barred entry rolled away from the entrance. What was happening? It seemed as though the soldiers that stood on guard were struck down and a being not from this world, like a man but so different spoke, “. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I know you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified but he isn’t here! He is risen from the dead, just as he said would happen. Come, see where his body was lying. Now go and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and he is going ahead of you to Galilee. You will see him there. Remember what I have told you.” (see Math. 28)
As the two Mary’s ran from the tomb. They were very frightened but also filled with great sense of joy. ‘Could it be true’ they wondered as they rushed to give the disciples the angel’s message. The story goes on to say that “as they went, Jesus met them and greeted them. And they ran to him, grasped his feet, and worshiped him to whom Jesus responded, “Don’t be afraid! Go tell my brothers to leave for Galilee, and they will see me there.”
Story number two is also recorded in the Bible. Acts chapter 9 recounts the story of Saul of Tarsus as he journeyed from Jerusalem to Damascus. He was no disciple of the rabbi from Nazareth. In fact he had devoted himself to the service of God in the form of hunting down Jesus-followers and bringing them back to Jerusalem for trial and execution. As he travelled, “a light from heaven suddenly shone down around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting me?”
“Who are you, lord?” Saul asked.
And the voice replied, “I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting! Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”
Those who were assigned to Saul to help him hunt down these heretics and blasphemers “stood speechless, for they heard the sound of someone’s voice but saw no one!
So who could we deem to be crazy – just Saul or all of them?
Whatever our thoughts may be with either the account of Mary Magdalene or of Saul, there are several things they hold in common.
First, neither of them actually saw the resurrection take place. The two Mary’s were the first at the tomb but neither were actually present in the tomb when it is alleged that Jesus was resurrected from the dead. In fact, there is no first hand evidence that the resurrection actually occurred. Yet both claim to have met a resurrected, a living Jesus.
Both experienced something that changed their lives for ever. Little is known about Mary Magdalene after this point in time, but the account recorded in Matthew says that she moved from sorrow, to fear, to joy and excitement.
Saul became Paul and instead of persecuting Christians became one of its greatest proponents, penned much of what we call the New Testament, lived a sacrificial life in the cause of Christ and suffered death because of this faith in Christ. His whole life orientation changed that day on the road to Damascus and remained so for the rest of his life.
Paul wrote these words, “12 But tell me this—since we preach that Christ rose from the dead, why are some of you saying there will be no resurrection of the dead? 13 For if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised either. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your faith is useless. 15 And we apostles would all be lying about God—for we have said that God raised Christ from the grave. But that can’t be true if there is no resurrection of the dead. 16 And if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless and you are still guilty of your sins. 18 In that case, all who have died believing in Christ are lost! 19 And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world. 20 But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died.(1 Cor. 15: 12-20 NLT)
Neither Mary nor Paul would ever be able to offer proof scientific proof that the resurrection took place but both lived their lives assuming it was real.
Is Easter Real? I dare say that Mary and Saul would respond with an overwhelming, “Yes!”