letter from Japan
‘I’ll definitely come. I love Easter!’ said one girl as we were distributing fliers for our evangelistic Easter service outside a primary school.
Easter is barely known here in Japan, though a few years ago Disneyland Tokyo started an Easter celebration, and chocolate eggs have started appearing in shops. Until last year, only one or two non-Christians would come to our Easter service, but last year we had 20, and though the aforementioned girl didn’t come, this year 30 people came and heard about the resurrected Saviour.
Japanese religion is largely focused on this world. Views on what happens after death are generally vague, but most think that life continues in some form or other after death. And the dead are not far away, but may bless the living, and be blessed by them. I was once studying the Bible with a non-Christian lady and asked her what she thought of Jesus’s resurrection. She said: ‘It’s wonderful that he’s alive and watching over me, and that my mother (who had died a few months earlier) is also alive and watching over me.’ For many, regardless of whether they think it could be true or not, Jesus’ resurrection does not seem particularly important.
This can also be true in the church. Recently a committed believer said to me: ‘I’m overjoyed to know God the Father, but I find it hard to get excited about Jesus.’ Including the resurrection. Our church library has some excellent books on the cross, but it is hard to find much in Japanese on the resurrection. Could this lack of excitement about the resurrection be one reason why gospel growth is so slow in Japan?
However, the resurrected Christ is at work. The lady I mentioned above did trust in Him, and is now in glory awaiting her own resurrection. After I had spoken on the resurrection at an evangelistic event, a non-Christian student (later converted) said: ‘I think the resurrection is going to be very important to me.’ May many across Japan discover just how ‘very important’ Christ’s resurrection is.
