Our fairy tales begin with “Once upon a time” and end with “happily ever after.” Have you ever wondered what happens after the “happily ever after”?

Once upon a time Snow White meets her handsome prince who wakes her from a poisoned sleep, … and they live happily ever after. Really? What happens after the honeymoon when a sociopathic mother-in-law continues her attempted murder not only of his wife but also him?

Once upon a time Rapunzel lets down her golden hair and much later reunites with her prince and they live happily ever after. Surely, but there must have been consistent arguments about the shower being clogged with her hair.

Once upon a time Cinderella meets her prince charming and they live happily ever after. Until after several years of marriage his irritation at her leaving shoes lying around leads to sniping and bickering.

There may be a temptation to read the Easter stories of Resurrection in the same vein as our cultural fairy tales. It is sad that Jesus died on Good Friday, but he rose from the dead and is with us forever and now we can live happily ever after. The reality of post Easter Resurrection is more brutal and honest and no fairy tale ending. For me, the upfront way the Gospels depict the struggle with faith after the Resurrection lends authenticity to the Resurrection experience that distils that this is Good News, deeper than any happily ever after fairy tales offer.

After the Resurrection, there are the experiences of failed hopes and dreams in Luke 24 .13 as Cleopas and his friend leave Jerusalem for Emmaus.  There is the nauseating fear of the persecution by authorities and hiding behind locked doors in John 20v19. There is doubt all round but often projected onto Thomas in John 20v24.

Failed Hopes. Broken dreams. Debilitating fear. Depressing doubt. What does the Resurrected Christ do with these human realities that seem the opposite of faith? Like some magic godmother, will the Resurrected Christ wave a magic wand in answer to the right prayer and make all the pain disappear? No. The Christian Faith cannot take away suffering, oppression and general failure.

However, the presence of the Resurrected Christ in the midst of the confusion, doubt, hopelessness, fear and depression is what is real and authentic.

The Gospels narrate a number of different experiences that the early witnesses went through, but they all adopt a similar pattern. It’s as if there is a liturgy that takes us into the waters of doubt and confusion, through transforming sacraments of community learning together and eating together, into enlightenment and empowerment.

1.           The Experience of doubt and confusion

2.           The Explanation of Scriptures

3.           The Eating together in community.

4.           The Enlightenment

5.           The Exit of Christ as the community, empowered becomes the Christ presence in the doubt of the hurting world, yet to be touched by Resurrected presence.

In Luke 24v13-25, a previous experience recorded of the Resurrected Christ, two walkers share their EXPERIENCES of despair. Christ draws alongside them and EXPLAINS the Scriptures. They invite Christ to EAT with them.  ENLIGHTENMENT is when they recognise Christ in the breaking of bread. Christ EXITS and the two are EMPOWERED as missionaries of the Resurrection.

Now in Luke 24.36-48 the same “liturgy” is repeated. There is the EXPERIENCE of terror thinking they are seeing a ghost. Jesus EXPLAINS the Scriptures and EATS broiled fish. Their minds are opened or ENLIGHTENED. Jesus EXITS and they are EMPOWERED as witnesses to the Resurrection.

The point of the repeated pattern (experience, explanation, eat, enlightenment, exit, empowerment) is that we too can find ourselves in the story of Resurrected faith. That this is a possibility is utterly true. I end with one example of how the pattern I have described unfolds.

Perhaps you have heard of the story of Father James Benson. Born in Leeds England, he came to Australia in 1910 as a brother in the Brotherhood of the Good Shepherd in the Diocese of Bathurst. Later he was ordained as an Anglican Priest serving in the Dioceses of NSW and Canberra-Goulburn. While Rector of Bordalla, his family of four children drowned tragically with their mother, when their car plunged into the Clyde River as they were returning from their holidays.

Obviously devastated by the magnitude of such a tragedy, James then joined the Community of Ascension and returned to mission work. He was the priest in Gona, Papua New Guinea when the Japanese invaded in 1937. His fellow workers suffered brutal deaths. He was presumed dead. James managed to survive three concentration camps and once returned to health he worked for the ABM.

The Resurrection shines through this story. There is a mural of the Resurrection that James painted in the Community of the Ascension Church. The light, wholeness and joy of the mural testifies to his experience of the Resurrected Christ in the midst of Good Friday tragedy.