Friday of the Seventh Week of Easter
Acts 25:13b–21
Rome had a file.
A prisoner named Paul. A case from Jerusalem. A dispute among Jews. No clear crime. No obvious danger.
Only a strange question about “a certain Jesus, who had died, but whom Paul claimed to be alive.”
That was how Festus saw it.
A dead man. A religious argument. A problem to be managed.
Jesus was, for him, a name from the past.
A man who had lived. A man who had died. A man whose followers could not let go.
How familiar this sounds.
For many today, Jesus is still only that.
A figure from history. A teacher from long ago. A name in churches. A face in paintings. A memory kept alive by people who still believe.
Interesting, perhaps. Beautiful, perhaps. But gone.
Dead.
That is how the world often speaks.
Politely. Coldly. From a distance.
But Paul could not speak that way.
He had met Him.
The One Rome called dead had stood before him as living light.
The One Jerusalem rejected had called him by name.
The One buried outside the city had entered Paul’s life and broken it open.
So Paul could not say:
He was.
He had to say:
He is.
He is alive.
Not as an idea. Not as a symbol. Not as a memory warmed by devotion.
Alive.
Near. Speaking. Calling. Forgiving. Sending. Changing lives.
That is the line between Festus and Paul.
Festus had heard a report.
Paul had heard a voice.
Festus had a case.
Paul had an encounter.
Festus saw a dead man causing trouble.
Paul saw the risen Lord giving life.
And the Church still stands on Paul’s side.
Against the cold sentence of every empire, every age, every tired heart that says, “He is dead,”
the Church answers:
He is alive.
Alive in the poor who are lifted up.
Alive in sinners who begin again.
Alive in martyrs who forgive.
Alive in bread broken and a cup shared.
Alive in the heart that suddenly knows it is not alone.
This is Christianity’s fire.
Not that Jesus once lived.
But that He lives.
Not that He once spoke.
But that He speaks.
Not that He once loved.
But that His love still reaches us.
Festus could not see it.
Many still cannot.
Festus had only heard a report. Paul had met the Lord.
A report can be filed. A witness cannot keep quiet.
So Paul stands before the world and says:
The One you think is gone is here.
The One you call dead is alive.
The One you placed in the past is walking ahead of us.
And if He is alive, then nothing is simply finished.
No tomb is only a tomb. No failure is the final word. No heart is beyond return. No world is too old for resurrection.
A man named Jesus, whom they thought was dead.
This is how Festus described Him.
But Paul knew better.
The Church knows better.
And today, we are asked to know it too.
He is alive.
And because He is alive, our life can begin again.
Scripture Attribution
New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993
the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of
Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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