What makes Jesus different? The statesman and missionary E. Stanley Jones in his sermon Christ is the Answer captures the hope of this Easter morning.
“Three days after Mahatma Gandhi had been assassinated, the radio did nothing night and day but eulogize and talk of the father of that great land, Mahatma Gandhi. Mrs. Naidu, the great power of India, gave a broadcast on Sunday, three days after the assassination. She was a Hindu, but had been in contact with the Christians a good deal, and she broke out in this eloquence. She said, ‘O Bapu [‘little father’], O Little Father, come back. We’re orphaned without you. We’re lost without you. Come back and lead us.’ I could sympathize with the eloquent plea of a stricken heart, representing a stricken nation, but do you know what I felt as I sat there? I thought, ‘O God, I’m grateful I don’t have to cry that cry for the leader of my soul: ‘O Jesus, come back. Come back. We’re orphaned and stricken without you.’ I do not cry that cry. He has come back. It is the third day and he’s alive. And wherever the heart is open, there we’re released. And wherever your heart whispers, ‘Help,’ he’s right there to give that help. And you can’t whisper a sigh within your heart without he’s right there beside you, meeting that need.”
He is Risen!
Source:
Jones, E. Stanley. “Christ Is the Answer.” 20 Centuries of Great Preaching: An Encyclopedia of Preaching. Edited by E. Clyde, Jr., and William M. Pinson, Jr. Vol. 9. Waco, TX: Word, 1971. 318-23.