My dear friends,
This life is not mere experience of biological fact.
We all live, whether in acknowledgement of a Creator or not, immersed in the reality and mystery of being. We live in beauty and ugliness, in love and hatred, good and evil. We live in circumstance and choice.
Our very individual place in this intricate, inter-dependent, multi-dimensional universe is a wondrous fusion of science and art. We are wired, body, soul and spirit, to appreciate it all!
We strive to make sense of our existence, our experience, our identity in it all. Do we just exist and cease to exist? Is there meaning? Is there design or is it all just a very elaborate, ongoing, evolving accident? What is love? What is evil? Why am I here? Do I matter? Does any of it matter?
The band Supertramp captured that search with these words:
“When I was young, it seemed that life was so wonderful
A miracle, oh it was beautiful, magical
And all the birds in the trees, well they’d be singing so happily
Oh joyfully, playfully, watching me.
But then they send me away to teach me how to be sensible
Logical, oh, responsible, practical
And they showed me a world where I could be so dependable
Oh clinical, oh intellectual, cynical
There are times when all the world’s asleep
The questions run too deep
For such a simple man
Won’t you please, please tell me what we’ve learned
I know it sounds absurd
Please tell me who I am.”
We experience a finite physical lifespan for a time during which we are active and responsible for how we live, and the spreading expanse of eternity beckons us through the questions and mysteries of soul and spirit. Is there more?
And somewhere back in recorded history, in the midst of it all, there is a man, perhaps more than a man, who says “Yes”.
He was birthed in the usual way, raised in humble circumstances, lived and taught of life, and a life beyond this, with wisdom, passion and mystery, did things inexplicable to ‘science’, made outrageous claims, fulfilled ancient prophecy to the letter, died innocently a cruel and violent death of Roman punishment, claimed He did it for us, was raised to life again, to be documented as seen by more than 500 individuals and, then, leaving bodily, rising into the clouds observed and recorded by witnesses, having commissioned his friends and followers to carry His legacy, His love, His message, His ways of life and His life-changing power forward through time, empowered by His Holy Spirit until His return.
He claimed to be God’s Son. He claimed we are loved. He claimed He provides the only way to be in God’s presence for all time. He claimed that without His life in us we would perish and that in Him we could live in unfolding eternity beyond our physical life as He does.
The Bible records the words of Jesus expressing this reality. In John 3:16, He says of Himself “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son so that anyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.”
Further on in John, chapter three, John the Baptist gives us deeper insight as he says of Jesus: ’”He has come from heaven and is greater than anyone else. I am of the Earth, and my understanding is limited to the things of earth. He tells what He has seen and heard, but how few believe what He tells them! Those who believe Him discover that God is a fountain of truth. For this one – sent by God – speaks God’s words, for God’s Spirit is upon him without measure or limit.”’
It is our Creator’s intention and love for His Creation that put Him here. His restoration plan for a world, intended to be filled with extraordinary creativity, love and communion, that can’t or perhaps won’t recognise its own centre or divine value and purpose.
Heaven come to Earth. God dwelling in His Son in His universe, with His feet in the dirt and grit of human life, showing us, in ways we can comprehend, who He is; leading us and making a way out of darkness into His immensely loving, extraordinary, eternal reality. He was here for a reason. He lived with us for a reason.
He is history and mystery.
At Easter time, Jesus still speaks.
Through recorded word and deed, through crucifixion and resurrection, through faithful lives which continue century-upon-century to be enlightened and radically transformed, despite the fading volume of Christianity’s voice in our culture, quietly, insistently, Jesus Christ is asking the same question He asked of His followers so long ago.
“Who do you say that I am?”
With love, Ann.
Some helpful places to start on your journey…
• Alpha courses
• Lee Strobel, The Case for Christ: A Journalist’s Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus Christ
• Ravi Zacharias
• CS Lewis books
Or, if you’d like to be connected to a local church, email us at [email protected].
