Acts 10:34-43;
Mark 16:1-8;
Do you know what happens to people who live perfectly the way God wants them to live, with complete love for God and for fellow human beings? It has only happened once in the history of the world. He was crucified. In that sense, Jesus was unique, the only one of his kind. He was fully and completely human, yet so completely indwelt by the Spirit of God that people still call him the Son of God. Unique!
His death was followed by another unique event. This is celebrated on Easter Day with reminders of his empty tomb and appearances he made to his followers after being raised from the dead. Being unique, the resurrection cannot be compared with anything else in our experience. People have tried, and many and varied have been their attempts to explain the Easter story in terms of ordinary human experience. None of them work. None of them catch the power of that resurrection, the power that transformed frightened disciples into bold and confident witnesses to Jesus as the Saviour of the world.
A unique personality, a unique resurrection; yet the Gospel announces that we can share in the Spirit of that unique person and share in the power of that unique resurrection. Through faith and obedience to him we share the indwelling of his Spirit within our own human spirits and share eternal life with him in this world and the next.
- How do you, or a dictionary, define the word unique?
- In what ways was Jesus like all other human beings and in what ways was he different?
- What theories have people put forward in their attempts to explain Jesus’ resurrection?
- What does it mean to share in the Spirit of that unique person and to share in the power of that unique resurrection?
