The Very Rev Albert Bogle reflects on the hidden moments of the Resurrection.

I THINK there are pieces of unnoticed joy interwoven all through the resurrection story if only we take time to ponder the outtakes.

By that I mean the unfinished story lines. I guess we shall never know all the details but sometimes we might just encounter that unnoticed joy if we just take time to reflect and wonder what could have happened next. After all does the apostle John not say: “ If all the things that happened surrounding Jesus were written down the whole world would run out of paper.”

What caught my imagination recently when reading about the resurrection was the thought, what really happened to the soldiers on guard duty outside the tomb? Did they ever become true believers in Jesus? After all, even if they were asleep to begin with they must have witnessed heaven touching earth in a pretty dramatic form. A cosmic makeover for humanity was in process. A new kind of creation had been initiated that morning and they witnessed it. So did they just take the money and keep silent? One thinks someone at some point must have broken ranks and the truth was out.

Anyway, I can hear at least one of those guards give his testimony years later. I can see him with great passion and conviction tell how he felt that first resurrection morning, recalling to a group of believers huddled behind a closed door, the utter joy and overwhelming sense of love and power that was tangible in the air as he tried to make sense of the earthquake and the lighting. He talks of a kind of holiness pervading the atmosphere. A kind of God fragrance that was all over him that morning even clinging to his clothes.

He tells how when he got himself together a few hours later he was relating his experience to the chief priests and the elders. He shares how he was expecting the religious leaders to be impressed that he and his colleagues had seen an angel and witnessed an amazing sight. Instead his growing joy went unnoticed to them but became more real for him as the days and weeks went on.

Instead, the pay-off became for him, a step closer to faith in Jesus. Before long the whole of Jerusalem was filled with rumours of angels and resurrections.

Oh yes the unnoticed joy that people were talking about seeing their loved ones back from the dead also went unnoticed and still does. A veil between the eternal zones had been lifted if just for a brief time and only a few were feeling the joy.

A fusion of cosmic and spiritual power had come together as Jesus was brought back to life. A huge stone rolled away with lighting power. An angel stands guard and some people come and go and don’t see what is in front of their eyes. Somehow joy remains unnoticed. And what of the discarded grave clothes? Where did they go? Who picked up this evidence and don’t forget the folded head napkin? Then there are the clothes Jesus was wearing standing in front of Mary? Where did they come from?

As for what’s happening inside the tomb? Have you ever wondered how did Jesus come out of his grave clothes in the first place? Did he rematerialise through the grave clothes into a newly created body, one that could walk through walls and doors, yet one that was every bit the same, in identity and personhood as the crucified Christ, bearing nail prints in feet and hands? What an unnoticed joy for Thomas! He eventually saw it. He doesn’t even look at the wounded side and the nail prints in his hands. He collapses on his knees and worships Jesus.

“Leading up to Easter, the invitation is to look more closely at the resurrection stories of new life and redemption that are happening all around you in the present, here and now.

So much detail around the story with amazing outcomes that we will never know. Unnoticed joy waiting to be uncovered and a story revealed. As we continue in this period of Lent, leading up to Easter, the invitation is to look more closely at the resurrection stories of new life and redemption that are happening all around you in the present, here and now Let each of us pray to our Heavenly Father to open our eyes to see and encounter the unnoticed joy in our families and in our churches

Let us go even further this Lenten time and pray that each of us might be willing to be crucified with Jesus dying to self in order that we might encounter the power of the resurrection not simply in the atmosphere but deep down in our souls. The thing is we don’t need to look for the unnoticed joy because within the story shared and recorded in the gospels joy abounds. Let’s start enjoying the story all over again before pondering the aspects of unnoticed joy.