An online presence for St Francis Anglican Church, Tairua, NZ
Easter Day … we are picking up the excitement of the Resurrection.
“The original disciples were shocked into bliss by the Resurrection – and they never recovered.” (the late Sebastian Moore) …
[To read more, click on title]
If we’ve been moved by the accounts of those characters through Lent, how are we moved by the Resurrection? Shocked into bliss?
Let us try to go back to 24 May 1738, to the City of London, where we discover an anxious young clergyman called John Wesley, aged 35. He has just returned from a two-year appointment as a missionary in the American colony of Georgia. For various reasons, this placement had ended as an embarrassing failure and caused him, John to question his vocation as a minister and indeed whether he was truly a Christian at all. [To read more, click on the title]
Jesus goes on to say, “Now my soul is troubled.” He is confirming he’s human. He is fully aware that he is about to suffer a horrible death, and fearful about his ability to cope; and to continue to love the human race throughout His coming pain and suffering. His knowledge that He will experience despair and feeling that He has been forsaken, even temporarily, from God, confirm to us that He is able to empathize with us when we go through our minor sufferings, because we know that He has experienced pain to a far greater extent Himself.
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