Title: Witnesses of the Resurrection
Contents
Today is a very meaningful Sunday. It is Easter Sunday, when the Lord defeated the power of death and rose again to life.
Resurrection is the core of Christian faith. Resurrection faith is the proclamation of “life” toward “death”, the greatest task of mankind. Resurrection faith is the faith that removes the shadow of death from human life and guarantees the possibility of eternal life. The events of the crucifixion and shedding of blood provide us with faith that God is with us in solidarity and with us in the trials of history and the sufferings of our personal lives. However, without a resurrection that overcomes trials and tribulations, the Christian faith ends in failure and setbacks, and it only has the meaning of a romantic religion that glorifies defeat. The event of resurrection, overcoming death and being born again into life, is the guarantee of victory that provides a new world beyond frustration and trials. This resurrection faith is the culmination of faith that ultimately renews life.
During the Passion Week last week, I spent the last week thinking about Jesus' actions in Jerusalem. The images of the Lord ascending the hill of Golgotha to be executed after carrying the cross with his own hands are a great inspiration to us who believe in the Lord. With the final crucifixion of the Lord, the 12 disciples and those of us who followed the Lord were frustrated and scattered.
At that time, the nation of Israel was waiting for the Messiah. Politically, they suffered from the continued political oppression and tyranny of the Great Roman Empire, and the people suffered from unbearable struggles in the accelerating yoke of religious formalism and truthless legalism of Judaism. They eagerly awaited the appearance of the Messiah who would come as the Root of David promised by Yahweh God in Jerusalem during the Passover pilgrimage every year. However, this time, it came to an end with the death of Jesus, who was called the King of the Jews, and two political rebels together by crucifixion.
An event occurred that radically reversed the case of Jesus. Despite the hopeless events that took place in Jerusalem, there are witnesses who visited the tomb of the Lord in the early morning morning, three days after His execution. They encounter a truly astonishing event that turns their empty and sad hearts, and that is "Discovery of the Empty Tomb". They prepared spices for the Lord's burial, and found the tomb, and they became the first witnesses to the amazing event of the resurrection, in which the dead were raised from the dead.
First, our concern is who are the first eyewitnesses of this marvelous event and how they became the first witnesses of the resurrection. These Witnesses were not men, nor were they the 12 disciples. It was women. Their name was Mary Magdalene, a sinful woman whom the Lord had cast out and healed the once afflicted by seven demons. And Salome and Mary. When they found the tomb of Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified, they became witnesses of such a great event.
How did these women become the first witnesses of the resurrection? They were compassionate people who loved the Lord so much. They were spiritually sensitive Witnesses. They were people who met the Lord in the agony of life and experienced true freedom of life and liberation from sin and oppression. They were the ones who were relieved of their bondage through the Lord. They were also witnesses who had the experience of salvation through personal encounters with Jesus. They were women, poor people, and powerless women, but they were the ones who found the Lord's tomb at dawn because they truly understood and loved the Lord more than anyone else. What they encountered was the empty tomb incident and the experience of resurrection. Now death is dead. There is only life.
Second, the first message these women heard was that they would meet the disciples in "Galilee" as promised. That's right. Galilee. It is the place where the disciples first met Jesus. It is said that we will meet there. Galilee is the place where you can meet the risen Lord.
How did we come to know Jesus? Did you meet for the first time because of a disease or amidst the agony of life's deep anguish and frustration? Or did you meet Jesus as the One who makes the world new in the midst of your commitment to reforming history? Have you come to see the Lord in the midst of deep anxiety and anxiety in your life? It is Galilee where we met and met Jesus and experienced the thrill of meeting him for the first time. Galilee is a place where we can remember our gratitude to Him at that time, our devotion to Him, and the faithfulness of faith we promised the Lord.
Historically, Galilee was a place where the poor, the uprooted, the abandoned, the wanderers, and the day-to-day lived, and it was also a place abandoned by the systems and institutions of the time. That's where Jesus called the 12 disciples. It will be the promised place where you can meet the risen Jesus only by going there.
On this Easter Sunday morning, we too were invited to the event of the resurrection experience. It is an event that we, who have been invited to experience as witnesses of this resurrection event, must experience. Resurrection is an event of experience in which truth is proclaimed through witnesses. On this resurrection experience, the good news of Jesus Christ will be believed, and the reality of the 'Kingdom of God' that Jesus proclaimed will be realized in this history, and the world of justice, peace and love will unfold. In this resurrection experience, Jesus, who was executed with two political prisoners on the cross, is now confessed as the true Messiah and Christ.
In this resurrection experience, we are called to our calling. This experience opens your eyes and warms your heart. So you can become a disciple of Christ who proclaims and seeks life and peace, justice and man.*