Easter reflection

When civilization finally collapses, and law and order breaks down, I’ll steal a van and drive down to Trafalgar square and lift Caravaggio’s Meal at Emmaus from its wall at the National Gallery and bring it home. I’ll liberate a few more paintings but this will be the first, because it is such a brilliant portrayal of the astonishment and delight that Jesus’ resurrection brought to his friends. From the very second that they knew he was alive nothing could possibly be the same for them again.

I can’t share their astonishment because I have been aware of the resurrection of Jesus for as long as I can remember, but I think I can share their delight. In fact my appreciation of what that event means seem to get deeper as time goes by. That’s not, self evidently, because I am getting any more holy, but because I am seeing more of life – losing people I have loved, visiting hard and poverty struck nations, becoming less optimistic about institutions, sharing in the struggles of friends and family. In all of this I’m seeing the fragility of life but finding no reason to trust Jesus any less and more and more reasons to see him as the foundation for all my reliable hope.

I’m finding that, strangely enough, the mysterious and astounding rising of this man from death seems to be the most realistic and clear headed way of approaching the sorrows and struggles of our world.

So ….  Happy Easter.

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