Epilogues
Dr. Greg Clarke (Bible Society Australia CEO)
If you took the story of Easter away from Western art, the walls of our galleries would be full of empty canvasses.
One of the central motifs of Western art, literature and music is Passion Week – the events leading up to Jesus’ trial, his crucifixion and burial, and Christ hanging on the cross, to the moving scenes of Christ’s burial (‘the Deposition’), to the wonderfully colourful resurrection abstracts of Australia’s John Coburn, the events of Easter seem to be perennially inspiring to artists.
Why is easter imagery so potent? Why, of all the subject matter available to a painter, does he or she keep returning to this particular week in history? Surely it is because Easter deals with the most spine-tingling topic possible: death, judgment, and the possibility of surviving them both. The Easter story, in which Christ carries the burden of sin on his crucified shoulders before his death-conquering resurrection to new life, reaches into the deepest fears and desires of the human psyche. To see Christ hanging on the cross is to imagine ourselves suffering for our sin; to see him risen from the dead is to imagine our salvation and the hope of eternity.
There are few subjects as moving as the death and resurrection of Christ, and wonderful reminders of it can be seen all around us, in frames, calendars, monuments and church windows, if only we will look.
Edwin Judge (Emeritus Professor of History, Macquarie University)
Luke’s preface signals the work as a systematic professional enquiry. Not an eye-witness, he has carefully checked the accounts of those who were. (He does not mind noting the frailty of some.) The the extraordinary events he brings matter-of-fact reporting, arranged and selected in the light of ta powerful interpretation. One generation on, he is in a strong position to get to the heart of the matter. Any historian would recognize and envy this advantage.
As with the other three gospels, this one was ekpt because of its authentic quality, a commitment totruthfulness both in detail and in meaning. The tradition was later embellished with the imaginative reflections of those who like ourselves wish to know what the disciples did not (How is Jesus supposed to have got out of the tomb?), or simply want to air the human interest (What did Jesus ordinarily took like anyway?). That is how the saga might drift into myth or legend. But Luke presents a disarmingly plain history for events of such momentous consequence.
Peter Kaldor (Managing Director, City Bible Forum)
Having understood the significance of Easter for the first time at the tail end of uni, I entered the fast paced world of merchant banking. I soon discovered how my new found Christian faith had enormous relevance for how I worked and related to my colleagues, clients and other associates. Doing deals is no doubt a huge adrenalin rush, but putting my trust in Jesus gave me a whole new perspective on life and what I should value.
I have met literally thousands of men and women who have gone through the same experiences as me. From corporate board rooms to cleaners, from the mail room to managing partner, the significance of Jesus’ death and resurrection cuts across all divides.
Dr. John Dickson (Senior Research Fellow, Department of Ancient History, Macquarie University. Founding Director, Centre for Public Christianity)
The great tragedy at the heart of Easter, the crucifixion of Jesus as a claimed king or messiah, is attested by Christian and non-Christian sources of the ancient world and is regarded as ‘beyond reasonable doubt’ by all reputable historians today. The gospels themselves, and Luke in particular, were written within living memory of Jesus and have a style recognisable to modern specialists as first-century biography, not myth or metaphor. Only a dogmatic kind of scepticism can dodge the conclusion that Easter faith is grounded in historical realities.