Recently, the terrifying natural phenomenon of earthquakes reminded us forcefully of the frail nature of our planet. They highlighted the unpredictable conditions under which countless millions of our fellow human beings live out their lives. They also highlighted the human capacity for love and compassion as people, many of them totally unconnected with the actual events, offered to the victims help, both financial and practical. They often put their own lives at risk in doing so.
The people responsible for gathering together what we now possess as our Bible sometimes used the term ‘earthquake’ to suggest either an actual event or to convey the enormity of an event after which nothing could or should be the same again. The Gospel according to St. Matthew, unlike those of Mark, Luke and John, describes earthquakes occurring at the time of both Jesus’s death and his resurrection.
Those who doubt the Christian faith and are cynical about it often think that Christians are obliged to take literally every verse of scripture. Such people ought not to be surprised to learn that such an approach to scripture is rare, and that most Christian people recognise that stories are often told in different ways for different reasons and for different audiences. Story-tellers have always added details to create their particular take on an event or to make their stories more exciting. Why should we think the Gospel gatherers were any different? Furthermore, what we read in the New Testament was not set down in any written form until decades after the events described. Differences ought not to surprise us any more than differences between the accounts which any group of people would give of an event which they all witnessed hours after the event, never mind years after. The details would inevitably differ – the fact of the event having happened would not.
So, the accounts of the events of Good Friday and Easter differ. So what? The underlying truth of what they point to remains firm. And despite what some choose to ignore, that truth is attested by histories of the Roman Empire:
- The man Jesus died;
- Countless people experienced the truth of his risen life in a way which they would die rather than deny;
- Rather than fade away, and despite fierce opposition and persecution, the movement which he founded flourished after these events and still does so.
Here are hard facts. Here are happenings after which nothing about our nature can be the same again. Human fragility, most evident in suffering and death, the earth’s frailty, so graphically evidenced by recent tragedies in Japan and elsewhere, are infused with hope and love and overcome by them. In utter brokenness are signs of healing. Here is truth which is earth shattering. No surprise that our friend and brother Matthew uses the image of the earthquake to highlight them.
May the truth of the crucified and risen Jesus shake you, fill you with God’s hope and love and encourage you to rise to loving service of others day by day.
