Of course, all the gospels - Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John - contain accounts of Jesus rising from the dead and appearing to the disciples.
It is a fundamental part of faith the God the Son was crucified, took sin upon himself, and destroyed it in his death, then on the third day rose again.
This is fundamental to faith and is celebrated in churches at Easter time and, in reality, at all times.
The purpose of excursion is to look at the similarities.
What is the same in all accounts of the resurrection, and possibly more importantly, what are the differences in the accounts of the resurrection?
You might think that looking at the similarities affirms the legitimacy of the gospel accounts and that is a good thing, but highlighting the differences may not be so good.
After all, it is often the differences in Scripture that are used to delegitimise the faith and the church.
I don’t think that is so. When I speak with people in my congregation the words that I use are different to the words that I use when talking with family.
With family members I can talk in a kind of shorthand, we have a shared history that is often inferred within the conversation.
The words don’t need to be said to capture the meaning of the discussion. It is the same with scripture.
The writers of the gospels have a shared history with their audience, that is especially the case when we read the letters from Paul, John, and Peter.
Those letters have an unwritten history that the readers know and understand and does not need to be written down again.
So, it makes sense that when the gospel writers tell of the Good News of the resurrection, they will include similar details and include details that are relevant to the people they are writing for.
Just because Matthew includes an earthquake in his account and the other writers do not, that does not mean that the account is untrue.
On the contrary, when news is reported the differences in detail do not mean the event is not true, those differences highlight that different people see matters differently.
The resurrection of Jesus and the destruction of sin, through Him, is a real and lasting event for all humanity - the similarities of the accounts bear witness to that, but the differences bear witness as well to the human nature of the writers.
They don’t delegitimise the event; they give it a human touch.
In short, we live with Christ who went to the cross willingly and rose again for our salvation ... of that we can all be sure.
~ Contributed by Fr Tim Fogo from St Paul’s Anglican Church, on behalf of the Combined Churches of Deniliquin.
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