This morning, April 8, 2012, is Easter morning. It is a day when persons who never go to church on any other day than Easter, may go to church. These generalists do not go to scoff, or to be called Christian. They go as a gesture of mystery, which may be fathomed, from a habit feeling. They come from a feeling that resurrection ought to be true, even if it is not, suggesting that there is an immortality of some sort. They may feel that, even if there were not resurrection, there ought to be something that is implied in it. They are voting for that thought as worthy of some belief as a possibility that meets an underlying longing that there is something more for mankind than earth offers. Reference to the story of Jesus’ crucifixion, is to be used as a story of hope of some sort. (Crucifixion was a common event of Christ’s era.) In ancient writings of Christians, hope referred to immortality. There remains that hope in our time in the biblically oriented theology and beliefs of the Church. It is likely that today there will be more persons in a church service, with hope, than on any other day in the history of the world since Jesus’ resurrection.
Today the lead story of Sunday Morning, the popular Sunday morning program presented for decades by the Columbia Broadcasting Company (CBS) was on the Shroud of Turin. The second story was on the Gospel of Christ as presented by Billy Graham in 1957 and that era, in comparison to the ongoing of that ministry by Franklin Graham, the son of Billy. (I knew Graham well, working with him, and shared a meaningful event with Franklin when we were speakers at a commencement of a college. There is no doubt that the father and son presented the same message, in different contexts. The father did it through mass evangelism across the world: the son speaks often but is best known for a massive effort to minister to the physical needs of people in the name of Christ – also across the World. Both relate well to their eras.)
The shroud of turin story was cast in still another light than the various ones we have been given for many decades. Another skeptic of the story of Jesus entered the fray. He was especially impressed by the Catholic Church announcement that the evidence suggested the shroud was a fake and from about 1200 A.D. A book by this man, Thomas deWesselow, has been recently released. The skeptic, Beame, is a believer that the shroud did come from the Jesus event. He lines up his evidence, related to the nature of the material in the shroud, the presence of substance common to the region at the time of Jesus – and other evidence including the point of the entrance of the spear in Jesus’ side, as well as signs of beating in the image on the shroud. He does not carry over to the biblical story, but believes the wrapping seen by persons at the tomb was the shroud. Again, as many times in the stories of historians, there appear to be deviations from the biblical record. The biblical Christian finds that the record is sufficiently safe that the analyst’s concepts found millennia away from the record cannot be as believable as those observations of persons living the events. The record affirms the head of Christ was covered separate from the shroud.
There was a third story, related to the context of Easter. The reporter visited Lourdes, with the flow of world persons seeking blessing, perhaps healing related to the miracle waters. The Church, according to the report, has recognized 76 healing miracles since the pilgrimages began nearly 150 years ago. Lourdes may have had many unreported healings. Many volunteers assist the pilgrims in the coming-and-going at Lourdes. Even when there is no healing, there is something that happens, for those who seek the healing or Lourdes solace related to Christ and suffering mankind. This segment of the TV program suggested how the individual has, within self, some personal strength found in faith, even if it is not sufficient faith that lifts persons to the point of miracles. Other serious segments followed in some programs, the sum of which made clear that Christianity offers hope in Christ, in freedom, in positive life contexts rather than negative, in the belief in truth and mankind functioning well in a troubled world. In both personal salvation and life freedom in a moral world Easter is a gift. The Easter legacy of Jesus, even for persons unmoved by the theology of the event, would make an interesting investigation for world history. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020