“Jesus Christ is risen today”, words sung and said throughout the Easter period, but what does it mean?
It is hard for us to understand how Jesus rose from the dead. We know what happened…the stone was rolled away, the burial clothes were left inside, and an angel was awaiting those who searched. We know that when the women ran to tell the disciples Peter had to be the first to put his head in to see if it was true and after that we know that Jesus appeared to Mary in the garden. These facts we know, but what happened inside the tomb before the stone was rolled away, we will never know.
Of course that leads us to a dilemma, because those who doubt need physical proof, and unfortunately, we cannot offer it them. But we can tell them what it really means to know that Jesus rose from the dead, to know that death has no more hold over us and that eternal life in the love of our Lord awaits us.
That knowledge is not about physical proof, but about faith; it is not about the mental capacity to think but about the capacity of the heart to believe and to love. Our faith in Christ is heightened and strengthened by the words He spoke to Thomas when he said, “Happy are those who did not see and believed”. And it is to those words we turn to show those who doubt that we do not need to feel the hands and feet for His wounds because we are His hands and his feet here on earth. We believe in Him because of what He did for us at Easter; the cross was supposed to be the end, but it was only the beginning and now we share in the glorious moment of new life in Christ.
He is risen and the tomb was just the shell. The crucified Jesus who had once been inside of it has gone. His business now is among the living. Every time we encounter the living Jesus, we become stronger, wiser, kinder and more loving in all that we do.
That is Easter that is new life in Jesus. And the amazing thing is the infectious excitement felt by those who believed on the first Easter will continue to be infectious today and this in turn will bring a new purpose and a new vision to all our lives.
As the Easter celebration begins let us all rejoice in all that Jesus has done and shout with joy that in His resurrection unquenchable love flows in streams of living water from his heart into our very lives.
May you have a happy and blessed Easter.