Happy Easter! He Is Risen

It had been a cold night and the tomb where the body lay was damp and even colder than the outside air.  The first hint of sunlight was making itself known and then a flash of light, brighter than the noonday sun filled the chamber with a heat that immediately took the coldness away.  On the shelf hewed into the cave, the body reached up and removed the burial shroud and with the pierced hands of one who had been crucified he removed the winding from his head. He stood and the stone that barred the entrance rolled away.  Outside, there were Roman guards who were astonished at what they were seeing. Their astonishment turned into a stupor and their stupor into sleep and they reclined where they had once been standing. Jesus, the Crucified One had risen from death into life. His Body was no longer restrained by the laws of nature. He could be anywhere He wanted to be when He wanted to be there.  No locked door could keep Him out, the stone was moved for the benefit of the women who would already be on their way to anoint the body of Jesus of Nazareth, yet, He was not there, He had risen from the dead.

The cool air felt good on His body.  He remembered the trauma of Friday, the trial before Pilate and Herod, the beating and the crown of thorns, the long endless walk up to the rise they call Calvary or the Place of the Skull.  The pain of the nails in his hands and feet and the hours of torture on the cross.  Now, there was no pain.  The pain had no hold on Him, neither did that old enemy of man, death.  He had shown how much God loved His creation. Now in the next forty days, He would have to gather His disciples together and make them Apostles again.  Mary Magdelene came to the tomb and found that soldiers had disappeared and that the tomb was not only open but empty.  Mary thought that the soldiers had taken the body away and was beside herself.  She saw Jesus, but her eyes were held from recognizing Him.  She thought He was the gardener and she begged him to tell her where they had taken the body of Jesus. if the gardener would only tell her where it was, she would carry it away.  Jesus but said her name and she recognized Him.  He told her to tell His disciples that he had risen from the dead just as He had said and that He would go ahead of them to Galilee.  Filled with wonder and awe, she did as she was commanded.

When the disciples heard what Mary had said, they, men of the world, used to the hysterics of women during times of crisis, they shook their heads and told her to rest and get a hold of herself.  She would not be silent.  He executed her mission and convinced the disciples to at least go and look.  They found it as she had said, but the Lord they did not see.

In Jerusalem, Caiphas had heard that the tomb of Jesus was empty and the Roman guards sent to guard the tomb were telling a tall tale of light and a ghostly apparition exiting the tomb after the stone rolled itself away.  This would never do. Caiphas told the Roman guards that they would confess that they were sleeping on duty and the culprit's friends came and stole the body.  He would pay them handsomely and would square it with the Procurator.  The guards readily agreed to the proposal. Caiphas smiled as the guards left then he furrowed his brow, thinking that this Jesus was going to be more trouble dead than when He was alive.

This is how I believe that first Easter Sunday went.  The ladies of Jesus’s company readily believed in the resurrection while the men did not. This one day in history makes all other days of history unimportant.  Because Jesus rose from the dead we are assured that death will have no power over us any longer.  Because Jesus defeated death we know that on the Last Day we will be reunited with our body and live forever in perfect joy and happiness with no pain or disease to affect us.   It is for this reason that we no longer have to fear death, it has lost its sting.

In this twenty-first century do we really celebrate this reality?  Do we contemplate what it means?  Death has gone the way of the dinosaur, it's effect are no longer the permanent darkness that man has always assumed it was.  Good gracious my friends, we should be stopping everyone we meet and wishing them, not a Happy Easter, for it is more than that, it is Resurrection Sunday and because of this day we are assured that death is dead!