Some thoughts for Easter Sunday 2021

 

From the time I was little, I’ve been a fan of poetry.  One of my favourites is “Christmas is really for the children”, by Steve Turner.

 “Christmas is really
for the children.
Especially for children
who like animals, stables,
stars and babies wrapped
in swaddling clothes.
Then there are wise men,
kings in fine robes,
humble shepherds and a
hint of rich perfume.

Easter is not really
for the children
unless accompanied by
a cream filled egg.
It has whips, blood, nails,
a spear and allegations
of body snatching.
It involves politics, God
and the sins of the world.
It is not good for people
of a nervous disposition.
They would do better to
think on rabbits, chickens
and the first snowdrop
of spring.

Or they’d do better to
wait for a re-run of
Christmas without asking
too many questions about
what Jesus did when he grew up
or whether there’s any connection.”

 

Is Easter relevant in our contemporary society?  Unfortunately our society has turned Easter into well… Easter – a pagan festival.  My Italian friends Easter greeting is “Buona Pasqua” – Pasqua being the Italian word for Passover.  I rather like the phrase.

For us to understand Easter we really need to understand the Jewish Passover.  Passover was the festival celebrated to remember the great deliverance of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, to the freedom and joy in the promised land.  Passover was the festival being celebrated at the time that Jesus was taken and crucified.  During the Passover, a lamb would be sacrificed and during that first Passover the blood of the lamb, placed over the door way, saved the people from the Angel of death.

Jesus is the sacrificial lamb of God, whose shed blood is over the doorway of our lives, saving us.

But today is resurrection Sunday.

In our second reading Saint Paul tells us; “For I handed down to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures… “

Note that he tells us this is of FIRST importance.   A little later in that same letter we discover that though this group of Christians readily accepted the message of the cross – in that they understood that Jesus died for our sins…for the sin of the world, there was a growing trend that didn’t really believe in resurrection.   

Saint Paul addressed this group saying;   I Corinthians15:17-19    “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost.  If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.”    Clearly, the resurrection is highly important.

In fact a renowned Bible speaker once said, “Christ did not die to save us from our sin” - - and if he’d have stopped there it sounded like heresy…  but he continued to explain…  “Jesus paid the price for our sins so that we might have LIFE…  dying for our sins needed to be accomplished in order to bring us life”. 

Many times we stop short of the purpose of God.  We acknowledge the sacrifice of Jesus and we are grateful, but often times we stay there and forget that God’s desire is for us to have LIFE.  WHAT does this life look to you?

The life Jesus brings us is not just any life, but abundant, transformed, spirit filled life.  AND… not just after we die, but right now.

Many times in the Gospel readings we hear that Jesus proclaimed that he forgave sin.  It would have been an easy, though, unless you were God, heretical thing to say, “Your sins are forgiven”… Anyone can say it to anyone, but is it true?  In order to prove that it was true and that Jesus had the power and authority to forgive sins, miraculous healings followed.

 Jesus experienced separation from the father on the cross, so that we don’t have to be separated from the father.  He paid the price for our sin, so that we don’t have to.  Jesus proclaimed that he had power over sin and death, and the followers of Jesus have passed this message on.  It is an easy thing to say…  Anyone can say that Jesus has authority over sin and death, but where is the proof?  We celebrate today the proof that all Jesus said, is true.  He showed his power over death and sin because he rose from the dead.

In our Gospel reading, John 20:9, there is this curious sentence  “for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead.”  What scripture is our reading referring to? 

There are a few Old Testament writings, but in particular from Psalm 16:10 “because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, nor will you let your faithful one see decay.”

Now… the disciples of Jesus were not the only ones acquainted with the scriptures about the Messiah rising from the dead.  The religious leaders were also well aware and wanted to prevent any allegations of Jesus rising from the dead and so they asked that guards be placed at the tomb site.  Please realize their predicament; They put Jesus to death… they passed judgment on him, therefore, there is no way that they could ever admit that Jesus was the Messiah and rose from the dead even if there was a miraculous earthquake and the body nowhere to be found.

 

What would you think if it was you at that tomb side.  Jesus had told his disciples that he would rise from the dead and when the body was missing, they believed – but what did they believe? 

Mary Magdalene remains at the tomb side weeping, and there she is comforted by someone she supposes to be the gardener until he says her name.  Now, I’m assuming she was initially blinded by tears and possibly half turned away, too consumed with her own misery to see the truth in front of her.  What was it that she believed?  It seemed that she believed someone had taken the body away.  It is the physical and logical explanation.

 

How are we also like this; too consumed with our own misery, our own worries and concerns, to see the truth in front of us?  We need to turn and see the risen Lord and realize the abundant life that God has given us.  L. I. F. E. 

 

What do we believe about the resurrection?  Jesus was very truly dead.  All his blood was shed and when the soldiers pierced his side to ensure his death, they found that a little blood came out followed by water… all his blood was shed.  He was dead.  That was Friday… but Sunday was coming.

 

Jesus shed all his blood.  The blood represents the life… he gave it all for us.  In our baptism we unite with him and spiritually we die and rise with him.  Simply by believing and receiving, are given the spiritual life with which Jesus rose from the dead.  What this means is that our eternal life, begins at the time that we unite our life with his.

 

Sunday, the body was gone and Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene.  A lot could be said about the fact that he appeared to women.  He elevated the status of women by this and many other things he did in his ministry… You see how he not only showed all that he was there to impart life… the essentials… the needs, but he went beyond the needs and wants to LIFE,… L.I.F.E life, and gives not just survival, but abundant and eternal life.

 

Empowered by that extravagant reality, these early disciples and apostles went on to endure hardships and death.  The importance of the message of abundant and eternal life was THAT important.  They needed to ensure that others received the message, the GOOD NEWS… the truth.    This is a truth that sets the captives free.

 

What is it that we are held captive to?  Are we held captive by beliefs that rob us of the life that Jesus brought us, bought with the cost of the crucifixion?  The price of separation from the father, the cost for every sin in the world, past, present and future, has been paid in full and Jesus proved it to be true by rising from the dead.

 

When Jesus rose from the dead he was truly alive.  He rose, not just in spirit but his body as well.  He rose with a life that could no longer die.  He is still alive.  He did not die again.  By his spirit he communicates with our spirit.  He declares victory over sin.  He declares victory over death.  He declares our eternal life begins now.

 

The grave is empty.  We are not to be living in remembrance of a man who once lived, but in the reality of the Good News of the resurrection, and in relationship with him, through whom we have L. I. F. E.  LIFE IN FULL ETERNALLY.

 

The grave is empty…. Will you accept that there is but emptiness in the tomb where our sins, our doubts, our hurts and failings were crucified  - because of Jesus rising from the dead, they are gone.  We need not dwell on our past failings… Our sin was crucified with Christ.  There is nothing but ourselves standing between us and the abundant, eternal life. Will you, with joy, embrace the abundant and eternal LIFE of our risen Lord?