“Sherlock Holmes once remarked to Dr Watson that, ‘When you have eliminated the impossible,
whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.’
This is what motivates Professor John Polkinghorne. As a
Cambridge physicist he might be expected to disbelieve such an extraordinary
miracle as resurrection, which appears to contravene the laws of nature. But in
fact, it is the cornerstone of his faith. Reflecting on the remarkable rise of
the early Church, he concluded: ‘Something
happened to bring it about. Whatever it was it must have been of a magnitude commensurate
with the effect it produced. I believe that was the resurrection of Jesus from
the dead.’
“Only a tiny handful of
people have founded immense, influential movements. They
shared three vital assets:
• a
charismatic personality
• a long
life
• a fast
growing number of committed followers
Muhammad is a good
example. He died in his sixties after a very energetic life.
His following had momentum - lots of people, good
organisation, a buoyant mood. So it's no surprise to find that Muhammad's
charisma gave rise to a great movement, known today as Islam.
The single exception to the
'long life and growing movement' rule is Jesus. He died
young - in his thirties. He spent only three years in the
public eye and that in a small country under enemy occupation.
He stayed local and didn't write anything down (apart from a word or
two in the sand). Towards the end
his popularity ran out and his followers ran away, their lofty
dreams shattered.
To sum up ... it was quite impossible for
this sequence of events to give rise to a movement of
any size or consequence, let alone the largest movement in all history. Yet ... IT DID!”
As Sherlock Holmes remarked, ‘When you have eliminated the impossible,
whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.’
We are not speaking here of proof.
Just as the existence or non-existence of God cannot be conclusively proved and
is therefore, for both Christians and atheists, a matter of belief; so the
resurrection cannot be conclusively proved or disproved and, on both sides, is
ultimately a matter of belief.
What is being said though is that we
have to make sense of the historical facts about the remarkable rise of the
Early Church and that belief in the resurrection makes sense of that story. As
John Polkinghorne has said, ‘Something
happened to bring it about. Whatever it was it must have been of a magnitude
commensurate with the effect it produced.’
More than that, the Christian story of
Jesus’ life, death and resurrection makes sense of life itself. For the early
Church and for Christians ever since, this story enables us to understand life,
to make sense of it, to see it as a journey with meaning, purpose and an ultimate
destination which is not death and destruction but new life and rebirth.
Death AND resurrection. Suffering AND
salvation. This is the journey which Christians make, following in the
footsteps of Jesus, as we travel through Lent and Easter.
While it is a journey which in no way
minimises the reality and pain of suffering and bereavement, it is ultimately a
journey of hope. One which leads to new life, where we proclaim that Jesus is
alive and death is no longer the end.
As a result, to go on this journey,
builds resilience and endurance in those who travel this way. As we look at our
lives, the difficulties and challenges we might face, our Christian faith tells
us that this is not the end instead change and new life are possible; indeed,
that they will come.
The story of Christ’s death and
resurrection takes us forward into a new life. The reality of his presence with
us on the way helps us endure and persevere. The combination of the two brings
hope for the future. Whatever we may experience in the here and now, ultimately
Love wins.
In his book ‘Surprised by Joy C.S. Lewis sets out the series of moves which led him to faith in God,
using a chessboard analogy’:
‘What Lewis describes in Surprise by Joy is not a process of logical deduction: A therefore B, therefore C. It is
much more like a process of crystallisation, by which things that were hitherto
disconnected and unrelated are suddenly seen to fit into a greater scheme of
things ... Things fall into place ...
It is like a scientist who, confronted with many
seemingly unconnected observations, wakes up in the middle of the night having
discovered a theory which accounts for them ... It is like a literary
detective, confronted with a series of clues, who realises how things must have
happened, allowing every clue to be positioned within a greater narrative. In
every case, we find the same pattern – a realisation that, if this was true, everything else falls
into place naturally, without being forced or strained. And by its nature, it
demands assent from the lover of truth. Lewis found himself compelled to accept
a vision of reality that he did not wish to be true, and certainly did not cause to be true ...
Lewis finally bowed to what he now recognised as
inevitable. “In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted God was God,
and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant
convert in all England.”
Lewis ... realised that if Christianity was true, it
resolved the intellectual and imaginative riddles that had puzzled him since
his youth ... he began to realise that there was a deeper order, grounded in
the nature of God, which could be discerned – and which, once grasped, made
sense of culture, history, science, and above all the acts of literary creation
that he valued so highly and made his life’s study.’
So, we have seen that belief in the resurrection not only
makes sense of the rise of the Early Church but also can make sense of life
itself, seeing it as a journey with meaning, purpose and an ultimate
destination which is not death and destruction but new life and rebirth. This gives
us a means of enduring the difficulties and challenges we face now with resilience
and endurance because of our belief that this is not the end and that change
and new life are possible and will come.
As a result, the story of Christ’s death and resurrection takes us forward into a new life. The reality of his presence with us on the way helps us endure and persevere. The combination of the two brings hope for the future because whatever we may experience in the here and now, ultimately Love wins. That is what made sense to John Polkinghorne and C.S. Lewis and is also what has made sense for millions of Christians over the centuries since that first Easter Day. May we also know Christ’s resurrection not only making sense for us but also making sense of our lives too.
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Alice Cooper - I Am Made Of You.
