It’s been a challenging couple of weeks for traditional Christianity.

First, there was the study hypothesizing that Jesus may have walked on ice – not water as written in the Gospels. Then there was news of a “Gospel of Judas” that made a hero of its subject, who’s traditionally a villain in the Christian story.

But pastors across Lawrence will celebrate Easter today with

a shared message: The resurrection of Jesus depicted in the Gospels still matters.

“You cannot prove the resurrection, but what we do know is that the lives of the disciples were radically transformed by their experience after the crucifixion,” said the Rev. Peter A. Luckey of Plymouth Congregational Church, 925 Vt. “They were so sure. What we are invited to do is to trust their testimony.”

It’s a story, he said, that gives hope.

“There is a power of love that has been experienced and received that is even more powerful than death,” Luckey said.

Other pastors agree, despite decades of scholarship trying to suggest Jesus might have lived a different life than what has been depicted.

“There’s so much discrepancy and disagreement on the historical Jesus, but the proof of his validity is in his ability to change people’s lives and make them whole,” said the Rev. John McDermott, senior pastor of Morning Star Church, 998 N. 1771 Road.

Believing in the event can be challenging but rewarding, the pastors said.

“It’s the whole concept of grace, the power that the resurrection brings,” said the Rev. Rene Brown of Ninth Street Baptist Church, 847 Ohio.

“Even though it seems like we can’t do this thing right down here, we are still given grace to abound on our account to speak on our behalf. No matter what we do, grace is always there to set us free,” he said.

The challenge for pastors today is finding new ways to tell a very old story.

“I think its relevance is in the message itself,” said the Rev. Nate Rovenstine of Lawrence Wesleyan Church, 3705 Clinton Parkway. “The relevance is in the audacity of the story that the Gospel portrays. God became human and in our place he dies, and he rose from the dead.”

Others will speak about what it means to believe in an event that is almost unfathomable for humans.

“It will address people’s doubts. Also, how can one believe? How can one still be a thinking person and be a person of faith at the same time?” said the Rev. Jonathon Jensen of Trinity Episcopal Church, 1011 Vt.

The Rev. John McFarland will urge parishioners at Christ Covenant Church, 2312 Harvard Road, to proclaim their beliefs.

“The skepticism that really flavors everything in our culture kind of shuts us up,” McFarland said. “I think we need to state the obvious again and again and be reminded of things (Jesus) has embraced.”

Others will speak more about what believing in the resurrection means on a personal level and how it can be applied.

“It’s a life-changing event. It lets us see things in a different form and not having to be so negative and recognize there is hope,” said the Rev. Julienne Judd of Lawrence Indian United Methodist Church, 950 E. 21st St.

McDermott agreed.

“Sometimes in your life youmay be buried through pain or avoidance or suffering,” he said, “but God has a third-day experience for all of us – one with hope or resurrection.”