SHoCKiNG

Categories: god, forty-blogs-of-lent, holy-trinity-huddersfield

Date: 22 March 2013 21:27:27

We FoRGeT HoW SHoKiNG iT WaS

Forty blogs of Lent

Day 33

Holy Trinity Huddersfield, Lent course week 5

This final week the Wakefield Diocesan Lent course looked at the death and resurrection of Jesus. And I was struck again at how shocking the whole thing was. Jesus's followers didn't see it coming, and when it happened it was easily the most shocking thing that had ever happened. Actually I was surprised by two shocking things: Firstly that at the crucifixion only one person recognised who Jesus was. Not the religious people: Despite having had years of the scriptures that pointed towards the Messiah they were the ones who were getting rid of Jesus. Not the disciples: They'd all run away (and who could blame them, if the authorities were executing Jesus, they could br next). Jesus died alone. No. The only one who recognised who Jesus was was a foreigner, a pagan. The Roman Centurion who said, "Truly this was the Son og God." But that's not the biggest shock. The biggest shock was the shock of the resurrection. Nobody saw it coming. Despite Jesus having taught the twelve Apostles that he had to die and rise again, they were still surprised. Corpses don't rise. The reaction of the women who came to the tomb shows the level of shock. They met a man who told them that Jesus was alive, and they were so shocked they did not tell the others as instructed, but went away and did nothing. The resurrection, the proper physical resurrection of Jesus is a shocking thing. We are so used to hearing about it, we proclaim the Lord is risen each and every Sunday, that we tend to forget just how shocking the event was.