Good Friday is the day we remember the death of Jesus on a Roman cross. The story of Israel had led up to this point, the moment of fulfilment. Individuals carried it all out, each acting as they saw fit, and yet the epic story was completed as it was supposed to be.
But Friday’s story of the death of Jesus was not the end. Jesus died, and was buried - and then, in Sunday‘s story, he appeared again, bodily and able to eat, but with interesting new abilities - to disappear, to go through locked doors, and so on. This was the beginning of a new story, a story that changed the world. Death on a cross was not newsworthy in those days; but resurrection was, and it is the conviction that Jesus rose again that turned a demoralised mob of disciples into powerful people.
Paul’s account in 1 Corinthians 15, thought to be the earliest written account that we have, shows the effect the resurrection had then. Paul most likely wrote this to the church at Corinth while at Ephesus in the early 50s AD. Please go and read it now!
The resurrection empowered a bunch of fishermen and others to spread the story of Jesus in spite of great danger, and even their own deaths. Shall we ignore this resurrection today, then? I don’t think so!