Christine Bryant, Lay Minister, St John’s.
Some years ago I attended a history conference in Wellington. I wasn’t and still am not a historian, but I have always enjoyed reading history and biographies.
The keynote speaker was a Professor of History in northern France. His specialist area was World War I and its impact on French society. He had become interested in the high rate of mortality from Spanish Flu of people in their 60s and 70s. He put out a call for any letters from 1919-1920 which might have a bearing on this.
“Within a week,” he said, “I received thousands of letters. Many had been written, but never sent, to young grandsons who had died in the last weeks of the war.”
He spoke about the overwhelming grief of grandparents who thought it so unfair that their young grandsons, their lives hardly begun, had died, whilst they, whose lives were nearing the end, had survived.
Many of the letter writers, in fact, succumbed to Spanish Flu. And so he spoke of the impact of grief and loss on society in northern France: many young widows with children but few grandparents to support them and few men of working age for the rural and mining communities.
“It is true! The Lord has risen and appeared to Simon”. (Luke 24)
This professor was an inspiring speaker and extremely knowledgeable. Ever since, what I heard then has led me to read history through a different lens, especially how historical events impact women and children.
Two thousand years ago, on the first Easter Sunday, two disciples, one of whom was Simon Peter, were walking from Jerusalem to the village of Emmaus, about 11km away, when they were joined by a third man. They discussed the crucifixion that had taken place three days before and the disappearance of Jesus’s body from the tomb in which it had been laid. The disciples were very puzzled, so the unknown man began to explain how all the events of the last few days had been foretold by the prophets: the Son of God would be rejected, he would die and rise again, the ultimate sign that God so loved all people that he sacrificed his only son.
When they reached Emmaus, it was evening, so the disciples invited the stranger to eat with them. The stranger broke the bread, spoke a blessing, and then vanished from their sight. Suddenly the two realised that they had walked and talked with the risen Jesus.
“Were not our hearts on fire within us as he talked with us on the road and opened the scriptures to us?” They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem… “It is true! The Lord has risen and appeared to Simon”. (Luke 24)
The Easter egg hunt is over, the chocolate all eaten, but the hope for all in the message of Easter is exciting and for all time. May it inspire you, as it inspired the two disciples.
