Easter 2 – Evensong at Cirencester Parish Church

During Holy week I preached quite a bit about the differences between the four gospels. In terms of the events and details leading up to and surrounding the death of Jesus the gospels, tantalizingly, present variations and inconsistencies.

To some this is a real challenge. There are many Christians who desire that only one simple version of the events should be presented. They are so desperate for this that some misguided souls have tried to merge all the four gospels into one continuous story – it is called a diatessaron – and I find it abhorrent. Each gospel writer brings to his own gospel the stories that were presented to him nearly 2000 years ago. IT is inconceivable that a single story is possible about the life of Jesus.

Let’s face it we can even agree about the details of what happened to an MP whose office was raided in the House of Commons, or about who was the source of leaks for scurrilous fictitious scandals of some Tory MPs. Why on earth can we expect such ancient documents to rise to such an impeccable standard. Perhaps we confuse our quest for facts with and understanding of truth in these ancient scriptural documents – whereas anything emanating from the Commons these days wouldn’t know either fact or truth if it jumped up and bit them.

For some Christians it is the inconsistencies between the gospels that make reading them rather more exhilarating – the excitement that makes the mind work, and which allows the faith to be less dogmatic and more exploratory and speculative.

Personally I am grateful for the differences. It makes for fascination and brings the events of these very dramatic two weeks very much alive.

Is there a problem with having different versions of what happened to Jesus both before and after the resurrection? I don’t think so. My faith is not founded on the details but on the fact that I experience the living Jesus in my life – the same experience that billions and billions of people have had for 2000 years. Of course I look to the documents of the faith – they are after all foundational, as all scripture is. But scripture first and foremost should tantalize our taste buds – they should give us a thirst to learn and experience more about God and Christ – they are in that sense an open gateway into the mystery of Christ. When scripture closes its doors on you, if that’s the view you take about he bible, then scripture has ceased to be life giving, and I simply a rule book that will get you into all sorts of human dilemmas, as you try to fit every situation into a bible situation.

The bible is worth more honour and love than that. The scriptures are the key to eternal life, but it requires you to use your mind and heart, and to reflect on your experience of God.

We have in the Lady Chapel here a stone cross head. It sits on one of the window ledges – I intend that it should have a more prominent place, for it is a wonderful agent for teaching us about the four gospels. The cross head is limited where we have it at present, because of course the whole point is that you should be able to walk right round it. On each of its sides is the crucified Christ. Not one side is identical to the other – each is slightly different, with its own subtlety and nuance – yet each side is the crucifixion.

We have four gospels that tell of the life of Christ. Each is different in its nuance and the way it understands the facts, but each is about Jesus. This variety is carved in high relief when it comes to trying to piece together the events of Holy Week and Easter.

I wish to contrast only two such presentations this evening. The gospel reading for this morning – John Ch 20 – has a commonality with St. Luke’s gospel we heard tonight. In both gospels we are post crucifixion, and post the body of Jesus being placed in the tomb.

You heard Luke this evening telling us that on the first day of the week, at early dawn women came to the tomb – they are named. The most notable among them is Mary of Magdala. If you look to John’s gospel, however, we are told that Mary of Magdala – the only woman named – arrives while it was still dark. Yet she makes it clear in her flustered conversation with Peter and the Beloved disciple who are hiding in an upper room, that ‘we’ do not know where ‘they’ have put Jesus. Quite clearly the same event, but with different nuances and emphases.

So we cannot look to the gospels to give us a clear and composite record of what is happening during this new resurrection week, any more than we can in Holy Week.

Does that matter? Emphatically no!

What matters is the effect that the risen Christ has on those early followers. Mary of Magdala has pride of place, though she is only first in the long line of people who have turned to Christ including you and me. Beatrice Emelia, who was baptized in this church this morning is but the most recent in this fellowship, who has been turned to Christ. Despite the desperation she felt at the death of her Lord, she is there to hear her name mentioned by the Risen Jesus. She is called by name, and when she is called by name she knows who her Lord is, and that he is not retrained by death, but rather liberated by God in resurrection.

Mary has a remarkable ministry of evangelism. She is the apostle to the apostles. According to Luke the all male club considered her news of the resurrection to be but an ‘idle tale’. According to John Mary has the most amazing conversion and is the one who brings the Good News to those men to whom the apostolic ministry has been entrusted.

Each gospel tells of a different face of the resurrection. The way in which Mary of Magdala is treated shows the slant of the gospel writer. If push comes to shove I warm to John’s gospel in his treatment of the Magdalene, for it shows the central part that women played in the early passing on of the good news. But the most important feature is not to be found in the differences or similarities of detail, but in the fact that these friends and colleagues of Jesus have the most mind-blowing experience, for which you and I should be eternally grateful, for we are their inheritors – we are family with them, and we are related to them in the fellowship of the risen Christ.