THE MIRACLE OF EASTER!

By Helen Jesze, 16^th April 2022

“And behold, there was an earthquake; for the angel of the Lord descended from Heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it… And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men. And the angel said to the women, Fear not ye; for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here… he is risen from the dead…”

Matthew 28:2,4,5,6 KJV

A Christian man I had known for many years, a church-deacon, announced he did not believe in miracles. I was surprised to hear this, and wondered how long it sometimes takes for the proverbial penny to drop, for he had attended a church where God had answered many prayers, some of which had indeed, been miraculous.

This man was like many Christians nowadays, controlled by their natural thinking, their 5 senses. Head faith has taken over from heart faith. We cannot understand God with our natural mind, for God is a spirit, and as we are made in his image, we are also a spirit-being. So believing with our spirit, our heart, is the only biblical way to believe. A 4 year old child can open their heart to Jesus, but a theology professor may reject the New Birth, because he cannot understand it.

This weekend we are celebrating Easter. If we take the miracles out of the Easter story, we are left with only a skeleton but no life. Christianity began with miracles! Every part of Jesus’ life was miraculous. Today we are privileged to read the whole story, but the disciples could only see it in stages. Their understanding was limited, and now, it seemed that the crucifixion of Jesus was the end of it all! Where do we go from here?! Their minds grappled with this problem and new situation. They could not grasp that their Lord and Master was now dead. Their world had fallen apart and their dreams lay in ashes.

Of course, Jesus had told them He would rise again, but these words had not registered in their mind. Then, as they were hiding for fear of the Jews and the soldiers, some of their women had come with the tale that they had seen the Lord, and He had spoken with them! Shortly after, two of them ran back from Emmaus, telling how Jesus had met them, as they walked from Jerusalem, with sorrow in their hearts. He had shown from the Scriptures that the Messiah must suffer but that He would rise again, and in the breaking of bread at suppertime, they had recognised Him for themselves!

It was miracle upon miracle, and when Jesus came and visited the disciples, they could only stand astonished at His majesty, and stare at the wounds in those hands and feet. He had become “The Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world”, even as John, the Baptist had foretold, and their lives would never be the same. These miracles may have occurred at Easter, yet their reality will last for all time and every one of us who have made Jesus our Lord and Saviour, has experienced a miracle, the greatest one of all – the New Birth.

As David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first Prime Minister said: “Anyone who does not believe in miracles, is not a realist!”

So let’s open our heart today for the miraculous resurrected Christ to show His wonders and His love to us in the coming days!

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life,” John 3:16 KJV