The initial four books of the Christian New Testament—the ‘Gospels’—tell the story of the teacher and healer, Jesus of Nazareth, who had been born into a Jewish family. Even as a child he had questioned the rigid application of some aspects of Jewish law; as a man, his radical reinterpretations would gain him a considerable following among the common people, at the same time as it would lead him into trouble. His aim was to cut through academic exegesis*, to make the experience of the power of faith available to those most in need. Conflict was inevitable and it boiled to a head in Jerusalem when the city was packed with people gathered to celebrate the Passover. Jesus was arrested by officers of the temple and taken to the house of the High Priest; he was subsequently turned over to the Romans, and executed by crucifixion under the order of the procurator, Pontius Pilate.

Following his death, his body was taken down from the cross, and buried in a cave. To prevent anyone from stealing the body, an enormous stone was put over the entrance. But on the following Sunday, the women who had come to anoint him with oil found that the stone had been removed, and that the tomb was now empty. And in the days that followed, it is told, he appeared to several of his followers, reassuring them that God would give them the power to continue his work and exhorting them to go forth and spread the word of salvation.

* exposition or explanation, particularly of scripture

Two shaken and grief-stricken men are walking along the road and a concerned stranger speaks to them. It does not take a belief in the divinity of Christ to recognise that all he represented was present in the empathy of the stranger. If nothing else, the testimony of the many sightings is evidence that the impression of the man—his teaching and healing presence—did indeed survive his bodily death, and the spirit that kept the Christian message alive through the following decades of persecution is proof enough of the power of his teaching.

The Easter story is at the very heart of Christianity, the ‘good news’** that life triumphs over death. If we can’t believe in a literal resurrection, we can still experience the liberation of that which has been entombed. Who of us has never suffered a depression or the stagnation of creative block. And then the moment of dawn when we finally begin to see the light at the end of the long, soul-less night: something believed to be stifled has emerged from its imprisonment. Jesus understood that in some cases all that is necessary for healing is a forgiveness of self; at other times all it takes is for someone to say, “It is possible!” for the block to be lifted, and the stone rolled away. This is the joy that Easter has to offer.

**the Old English word godspel, ‘good story’ is a translation of the Latin evangelium, ‘good news’

Empty tomb
by He Qi