The Today programme this morning has been dominated by two main stories, both revolving around the results from the elections to the European Parliament – the collapse of the vote for Labour and the two seats won by the British National Party.
The second of these stories has given the BBC, and the other political parties, an interesting dilemma – how to pour scorn on the BNP as a party without insinuating that the voters who plugged for them are entirely devoid of intelligence!
John Humphrys conducted one of his typically combative interviews with Nick Griffin, the leader of the BNP; but elsewhere in the programme politicians were going out of their way to tiptoe around the issue and declaring their need to ‘understand the reasons why’ voters had opted for the far-right party.
This contrasted markedly with the reaction of Sarah Montague to one of the smaller stories this morning. Apparently a survey of three thousand people in the UK found that Jesus Christ is the ‘dead person’ they would most like to meet. As the result was read out Sarah Montague could be heard in the background laughing her head off. It seems that while we must be very po-faced about voters choosing an extremist far-right political party there is no reason whatsoever to consider the reasons behind so many people in today’s overwhelmingly secular society still wanting to meet Jesus Christ.
In 2002 a survey by New Scientist Magazine found that 67% of Britons are terrified by death. The same survey also found that one of the ‘dead’ people that those surveyed would most like brought back to life was Jesus Christ.
I find these surveys incredibly depressing. They display that there is an underlying hunger for spiritual satisfaction in every human being yet there is an aimlessness, a complete lack of understanding demonstrated in the responses. Almost as many people said that they wanted to meet Einstein, Princess Diana or Elvis!
There is one fundamental issue that has been missed by both of these surveys and that is the simple fact that Jesus Christ is not dead – He is risen! This is so basic to the Christian gospel that the Apostle Paul stated that if it were not true the whole gospel message is a lie: “if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ … if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable” (1 Cor 15 v14-19).
The resurrection of Christ was what fuelled the spread of the early Christian Church. It was what motivated those who chose to die rather than to renounce their faith. Without it, the whole body of Christian doctrine is a sham and a lie. Thank God that Paul is able to add,”But now Christ is risen from the dead” (1 Cor 15 v20). And because He is alive we are able to know Him here and now.
I suppose the question that comes out of all of this is, ‘do you?’ Or are you still flailing around in the dark trying to find a meaning to life, fearing death and without a clue as to how to prepare for eternity? A search for Jesus Christ is not a matter to be scoffed at – but simply one to be pointed in the right direction.