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"Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play…it is war minus the shooting."

George Orwell

Resurrection 2015

Why do you look for the living among the dead? Jesus is not here. He is risen. Luke 24:5-6

Sports commentators like to talk about a great comeback by a player or team as a resurrection. As we celebrate Easter Sunday the real resurrection is on our minds. On the first Good Friday, Jesus – the sinless Son of God went to the cross for you and me. He died for our sins that we might be forgiven. He died that you and I can live forever more. Death has lost its sting. But he has risen and is alive for ever more!

Some Jews said that the early Christians hid the body of Jesus and made up the story of the resurrection. Look at the gospels. Even when the risen Jesus appeared to them, his followers seemed unable to believe that it really was him!

I would love to have been on the road to Emmaus when Jesus joined Cleopas and the other person (possibly Mrs Cleopas) who were walking from Jerusalem. (Luke 24:13-35). They told the stranger – not recognizing him as Jesus – how their expectations had been dashed when the one they hoped was going to redeem Israel was crucified.

Luke records in 24:27 “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, Jesus explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself”. What a team-talk that must have been! Imagine Jesus explaining all those bits of the Bible story that had always puzzled you.

As you complete – if you involved this weekend – remember the true meaning of Easter. Remember to thank Jesus for dying and rising again for you. In 1993 Bernhard Langer won the US Masters on Easter Sunday. At the presentation The first question he was asked was how the first Masters win compared with the second. He answered, ‘It’s a great honour to win the greatest tournament in the world, and especially on Easter Sunday, the day my Lord was resurrected.’ Hallellujah!

PS “The meaning of Easter lies in liberation from the compelling force of guilt and the compulsion to repeat evil. Easter opens up the boundary-crossing freedom to play the game of the new creation. This is possible and meaningful because there is a hell and a hopelessness, which Christ’s death has conquered once and for all and which for those who are liberated has been put into the past. He suffered that we might laugh again. He died that we may live as liberated human beings. He descended into the hell of the forsaken to open for us the heaven of freedom”. Theology of play, Jurgen Moltmann, Harper and Row, NY, 1972

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