For by the life and death of Jesus, God’s mighty Spirit, now as then,
Can make for us a world of difference, as faith and hope are born again.
Christ is alive, and goes before us to show and share what love can do.
This is a day of new beginnings; our God is making all things new.
In the Gospel of John 20:9 we read “For as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead.” Did you detect that powerful four-letter word “must”? You see, the resurrection was inevitable. It was a must because God had a high stake in the outcome. The power of death has now been broken. Resurrection Sunday is a day of new beginnings: new hope.
In John 5:24 Jesus says “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes in God who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.” Resurrection Sunday is a day of new beginnings: new life.
In John 20: 17-18, we see a Mary apparently so full of joy and excitement that she just reached out to embrace Jesus; but Jesus told her “Do not hold on to me.” Instead, she was told to “Go to my brothers and say to them ‘I am ascending to my Father, to my God and your God’.” Mary thus became the first evangelist of the Christian faith on Resurrection Sunday morning; and so she ran and told them all, “I have seen the Lord.” thus a new team of witnesses was born. This is a day of new beginnings: new witness.
Henri Nouwen wrote a powerful Resurrection (Easter) Sunday devotion. I invite you to take a moment to read and meditate on it:
He is Risen
by Henri Nouwen
“He has been raised; he is not here.” Mark 16:6
Dear Jesus, you once were condemned; you are still being condemned. You once carried your cross; you are still carrying your cross. You once died; you are dying still. You once rose from the dead; you are still rising from the dead.
I look at you, and you open my eyes to the way in which your passion, death and resurrection are happening among us every day. But within me there is a deep fear of looking at my own world. You say to me: “Do not be afraid to look, to touch, to heal, to comfort and to console.” I listen to your voice and as I enter more deeply into the painful, but also hope-filled, lives of my fellow human beings, I know that I enter more deeply into your heart…
As your passion, death and resurrection continue in history, give me the hope, the courage and the confidence to let your heart unite my heart with the hearts of all your suffering people, and so become for us the divine source of new life.
You have conquered death and given us new life in you, O Lord, our God. Alleluia!
