‘Now on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women came to the sepulchre, bringing the spices they had prepared.
And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre.
And they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus…..
And behold 2 men stood by them in shining garments…… and they said unto them,
Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but he is risen.’
Easter is the greatest feast of the church; it defines our faith; it is resurrection!
As St. Paul says, ‘If Jesus was not raised, we have nothing to believe, and we are of all people most to be pitied.’
After the discipline of Lent, and the emotional draining of Holy week we come to Easter day. A day of joy, and dare I say relief, and of celebration.
But it is also a day of surprise, of the unexpected and of mystery.
Having been taken down from the cross, Jesus was taken to a tomb in a nearby garden where His dead body was laid on a cold slab.
The tomb was sealed. Only deep darkness surrounded the body of Jesus.
But then……on the 3rd day……celestial light filled the tomb….the seal was broken….
And Jesus came forth…..alive!!!
THIS is what Easter is!
Our lives may not feel especially different when we wake up on Easter morning.
If there has been pain in our lives, anxieties, burdens to be carried……they will still be there…maybe for a long time.
But all IS different because ‘He is risen!’ and we have greeted and met the Risen Lord.
The Lord who will be with us in all our pain……even to the end of the age.
A verse from a beautiful Easter hymn tells us…..’this is easter.’
Now the green blade rises
from the buried grain.
Wheat that in the dark earth
many days has lain.
Love lives again.
that with the dead has been;
Love is come again
Like wheat that springs up green.
John M.C. Crum.
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!!