Talking about the resurrection! | The Chaplaincy of Poitou Charentes

Dear friends, Paul was saying: Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. Letting people know that you believe firmly in the resurrection is so important when you witness to people who haven’t hear the good news!! We read in Luke that ‘Jesus was seen and heard by the apostles over the course of forty days; He even ate with them, demonstrating that He was not a ghost’ (Luke 24:37–39).
Do we need to mention all the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus? I guess not, as you may have a particular one you like or even two! The one that is close to my heart is that the first eyewitness of the risen Saviour was not a bigwig like Caiaphas, Pilate, or King Herod; it was a woman. And not just any woman, but Mary Magdalene, a woman from whom Jesus had cast seven demons (Luke 8:2). No favouritism, the Lord our God loves men and women equally, no doubt about that!! 

Paul is just as formidable a witness to the Resurrection. He was not a follower but the early church’s most feared persecutor. Yet after confronting the risen Lord, Paul was transformed into perhaps the most influential Christian in history. He endured tremendous persecution, including imprisonments, floggings, beatings, and even stoning for his faith. The only plausible explanation for Paul’s changed life was his encounter with the risen Saviour on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:1–9). 

Jesus appeared separately to Paul, Peter, James, the rest of the apostles, and over five hundred at once (1 Corinthians 15:5–9: 5 and that he appeared to Cephas,[a] and then to the Twelve. 6 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8 and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.9 For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.). Most of these people were still alive when Paul wrote these words, implying that his readers could check with these witnesses if they didn’t take his word for it. 

I confess that I didn’t realise that James, the half-brother of Jesus remained a sceptic throughout the Lord’s earthly ministry (John 7:5). At one point, he and his family claimed that Jesus was “out of His mind” (Mark 3:20–21). While on the Cross, Jesus entrusted the care of His mother to His disciple John rather than one of His half-brothers, indicating that James likely had not yet come to believe. 

Soon after Jesus ascended to heaven, James was counted among the believers (Acts 1:14), and became a leader in the Jerusalem church (Galatians 2:9). What could account for this dramatic change? In all likelihood, he was convicted of his unbelief and believed in Jesus after seeing Him alive following His execution. 

Brothers and sisters, in this uncertain time of covid, when we feel that we are in a prison (10 kms is its width here in France) let’s call on Jesus-Christ, our friend and our Lord who died for our sins remembering that He said: “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die;” John 11:25