Easter responses: the disciples- and us.

This is the first of a series of posts on the responses of different people to the events of Easter- to Jesus' death and resurrection.  Hopefully thinking about how the different actors in the story responded will help us think about our own response.

It's easy to condemn the disciples.  They were with Jesus continuously for about three years, heard him talk, saw his miracles, and yet when it came to the test, they failed.  Badly.  All of them.

They sat at the last supper, listening to Jesus' talk of what would happen to him without understanding.  They followed him to the garden of Gethsemane, but they fell asleep.  They talked big about their loyalty to Jesus- but ran away when the authorities turned up to arrest him.

It's easy to condemn the disciples for their stupidity, their lack of action.  But  would we be any better?  I don't think so, really.  Maybe some of us would.  I'm not sure I want to find out what I would do in a life or death situation.  But I'm no hero.

The difference now is that we know what happened next.  Jesus didn't stay dead, he rose!  Knowing that, we have less excuse than the disciples for not doing what we know we should for Jesus because we know that he won.  And we have the holy Spirit to help us.

And yet the disciples were forgiven, were accepted back into Jesus' friendship and given the task of building the church.  Even Peter (more on that tomorrow).  Despite their failure (and presumably the knowledge that they might fail again) they were still willing to take risks for Christ.  In the same way God forgives us for all the times we let him down, all the times we pass up on an opportunity to stand up for him.  Thank God for that!