The untold Easter story: Christ’s Passion is reshaping Sydney

"We may well live in a post-Christian society. But the death and resurrection of Christ still holds an extraordinary power over Australians.

"There is a hunger among Australians to find the living God. This is reflected in the flood of religiously-themed films released on commercial cinema screens this Easter, including Luther, and the rescreening of Mel Gibson's The Passion."

"This Easter marks the one year anniversary of the release of The Passion. Despite the film's flaws, our churches have seen many people come to Christ after seeing the film.

"Their stories of Christ's life-changing power are rarely told in the newspapers or seen on the TV news. Yet these stories are reshaping families, even whole neighbourhoods. Their experience is shared by many thousands of Sydney-siders who encountered the living Christ for the first time this year, and gave their lives to him.

"Natasha and Jake were ordinary twenty-something Australians who went on a date to see the Passion, and were so moved by Christ's suffering that they wanted to find out more.

"After attending a course which explained Christianity, they became the first converts at Sydney's newest Anglican parish, St James', Menangle." 

"Natasha said: "I realised I was ignoring God before. Now I realise God is very relevant and I want to live my life for him'.

"Natasha and Jake discovered what the Bible tell us: The resurrection of Jesus is not a Hollywood story. It is an event that occurred within space and time.

"God has not only intervened in human history but governs the earth. At a particular point in history, says the Bible, Jesus came and revealed God’s plan to save those who love him.

"Jesus suffered, died, and then rose from the grave as the justified ruler of the universe. In doing this, God gave history a shape that we can understand. He showed us that Jesus was God in the flesh, the one who assures us of God's love by becoming a sacrifice for sin. The death and resurrection of Jesus"” the message of Easter "”makes sense of the tangled reality of our own lives and the messiness of the world.

"Christ's resurrection marks the start of the new creation, the beginning of what God is proposing for the whole of our world " the defeat of evil and the triumph of God's holy rule of love and peace.
"In Christ's resurrection rests the hope that should sustain us through every darkness of the present time.

"Christians do not romanticise death. Through our tears we see the Lord Jesus and know that he went through the death experience and came back in triumph. As Natasha and Jake found after they saw The Passion, our whole hope rests on Christ, and we will not be disappointed.

Video and audio versions of this message have been sent to TV and radio newsrooms

CONTACT:

Margaret Rodgers (w) 9265 1507