“So the implication of all this is that the Resurrection is not a human prank but God’s most startling activity. Man killed Jesus but God wouldn’t take man’s no for an answer. He raised Jesus and gave him back to us, alive forevermore, to strengthen us, to guide us, to admonish us, to be our Paraclete, or Counselor. God raised Jesus not as an invitation to us to come to Heaven when we die, but as a declaration that He himself, through Jesus, has established permanent residence on earth. The resurrection places Jesus on this side of the grave, here and now, in the midst of this life. He is not standing on the shore of eternity beckoning to us to join him there; he is standing beside us and joining us here. The good news of the undisturbed graveclothes is not that we shall die and go home with him, but that He is risen and comes home with us.” (Clarence Jordan, in a letter to a high school student April 27, 1964)
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