Character

At this time of year I often try to imagine what those first disciples went through as they witnessed the death and resurrection of Jesus. I try to picture the joy on their faces as they realize the truth - that Jesus is risen and that everything which they had hoped for in Him, is, indeed true.

But then what happens next? We all know that Christianity has its mountaintop moments of revelation - but what did the disciples do when they returned to the every day - to earning money, and getting headaches and dealing with families and friends? There is nothing to suggest that their lives are made suddenly simple or unrealistically easy - they lived in the real world with real people and many would have had similar experiences to those we face - worries about money and families and health.

In Church at the moment we have a Lenten Ring. During Lent it had six purple candles and a white one in the middle. The imagery was that a candle would be extinguished each week during Lent until, finally, the Christ candle would be put out on Good Friday (which we made part of the Passion Reading). Around the candles were thorny branches.

However the same thorns are now bedecked with lilies, the purple candles are gone and the base houses the paschal candle. What had been a symbol of Christs approaching death is now a symbol of new life in the Resurrection - but the thorns are not gone. They are transformed to house beauty and hope.

Whilst I do not want to distil our understanding of the resurrection down to one image, there is something very real in this idea that the problems and brokenness of the the world do not just disappear as if by magic but that somehow, the light of the risen Christ, can transform even the darkest of human places.

Perhaps this is about character. The disciples did not live, suddenly, as perfect and sinless people but rather as those with a different sort of character , a character which had been transformed by their encounter with Jesus.

A Christianity which suggests that we drop into perfection on Easter Day is impossible and a Christianity which demands unfailing jolity is approaching insane. But with Easter, with the truth of Jesus rising, we are changed - everything we do and are is in the light of the Risen Christ.

The language to express all of this is a bit difficult to find and to sound coherent and so I suppose I go back to imagination - I imagine those disciples on that road being transformed, having their whole outlook changed, and then I try to put myself into their shoes and remember that I too am an Easter person.