Skip to main content

Conversations on the way to the Cross 8: The Resurrection




The guards recover


"What was that??"

"Owwww... my head hurts."

"I'm not surprised, Dan!  You went down like a felled tree - I saw you!"

"You weren't much better, Matt.  You were shaking like a whole bush full of leaves."

"Well at least I didn't faint, did I?  I could have sworn we'd been struck by lightning - but it was a man..."

"Yes, just as we were about to tell those women to get out of here - and where did they go, anyway?"

"That way, I think, in a hurry.  They must have been as scared as we were."

"No, that's not right, that shining guy talked to them!"

"Oh come on, Saul, you must have imagined that."

"No, he did!  He said something like, you're looking for Jesus, but he's risen from the dead."

"Risen?  You mean..."

"Uh-oh..."

"Oh, we are in for it now."

"We are dead.  We are so dead."

"But where did it go?  Where did the body go?"

"The shining man must have taken it!  It's the only explanation."

"But we saw him!  OK, you didn't, Dan, you were out cold, but me and Matt here did... he didn't have a body, did he Matt?"

"No, and look, it's not like someone just grabbed it and ran.  All the wrappings are still there, just as if..."

"... the body went right through them.  Oh, I don't like this, I don't like this at all..."

"Look!  There's more people coming.  We've got to get out of here, guys."

"We'll have to tell the boss."

"Tell him what?  We were on duty the whole time, but now the tomb's open and the body's gone?"

"We'll have to say about the shining man.  And what he said."

"What, Jesus is risen?"

"That's right, we'll say, Sir, an angel came and now Jesus has risen from the dead!"

"Sir, the dead body you sent us to guard has come to life again!"

"Sir, the power of the Almighty removed him from the tomb!"


"...no, but seriously.  What are we going to say?"

Matthew 28:1-10

Other Conversations from the Cross
1: The Donkey
2: The Commotion
3: The Authority
4: The Anointing
5: The Betrayal
6: The Burial
7: The Precaution

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Supercars and Selfies on the South Coast

We drove south on a wet, wet Saturday in August. The windscreen wipers swished endlessly back and forth, as we debated whether it was worth stopping anywhere except for the overcrowded motorway services. By the time we reached Winchester, the wipers had subsided to an occasional flick across the screen. We decided to stop. Of course, as soon as we left the car park there was a brief shower, but we ducked into the City Mill, now a National Trust property. There was a large room full of the usual kind of displays about flour milling; a recently renovated garden; and downstairs, the mill race running at full tilt. The mill is built right across the River Itchen. Winchester City Mill garden The mill race Water wheel (awaiting renovation) We stayed dry as we explored further into Winchester. There was even some blue sky for our selfie by the cathedral! But as we walked back to the car the rain hit us like a hose on full blast. An overhanging building provided some slight shelter, but the wa

National Forest Way: Calke Abbey to Ashby de la Zouch

All the best walking blogs have maps on. I finally figured out how to add a route map to mine. If I get time, I'll add them to the previous posts as well, so you can see where I went. So, here are the two walks which made up the next stretch of the NFW. Walk 1  I started from the National Trust property and walked along by the lake, up the hill by the deer park, and down to Staunton Harold reservoir - all very familiar. Calke village postbox featured a highland cow on top. Lake at Calke Abbey Herd of deer   A short stretch on the road took me to Dimminsdale, which was new to me. There are records of mining at the site from the 13th century until the end of the 19th century. It's incredible to think that people worked there for so many hundreds of years. Now it is a secluded landscape of still pools and shaggy trees. Dimminsdale   I crossed a small section of the Staunton Harold estate, then went up a private lane with some rather nice houses. My turning point was where the Nati

Reading for Spiritual Formation 2023-24

I wasn't sure whether to read another set of theology books this year. Could the time I spend on it be better spent on something else? At what point does it become reading for the sake of it, without having much impact on my wider life? It's difficult to tell. However, as usual, I had a growing list of books I wanted to read. I do need to think about what I'm doing as well as what I'm reading, and I don't expect to continue this specific discipline indefinitely. But I decided there was space for at least one more year of Reading for Spiritual Formation. So, without further soul-searching: The Books. Three Mile an Hour God Kosuke Koyama Japanese theologians are few and far between; Christianity is still very much a niche religion in Japan. Kosuke Koyama was Japanese and appears to be both influential and accessible. Not every theologian is both! So I'm excited to read his recently republished book Three Mile an Hour God. It was originally written in 1979, and is