Were we to stand on Main Street and ask passers-by, “What do you think is the greatest festival in the Christian calendar?,” the majority would probably say, “Christmas.†Few, if any, would answer, “Easter.†It is like living in two worlds: the world of Main Street and the world of our Christian faith. Coming into the beautifully decorated church this morning, we’ve left behind that other world of Easter eggs, fluffy chicks and Easter bunnies, for a time at least to be with the source of it all. What are we celebrating, what does it mean?
Easter is an invitation to come out of the darkness and the shadows into the light: a proclamation of Christian faith that Jesus is truly risen.
In St. Matthews’s account of the Passion we hear how the chief priests asks Pilate to place guards at the tomb of Jesus, for they remembered His promise that He would rise, and they feared that His disciples would come and steal the body away and, as the chief priests put it, “This last piece of fraud would be worse than what went before.†Which brings us to the crux of the matter: what did happen on that first Easter morning? There are no witnesses to the rising of Christ – only the empty tomb and the shroud clothes left behind.
The Gospels do not explain the resurrection. The resurrection explains the Gospels. Belief in the Lord rising from the dead is not a footnote in Christian faith. It is the Christian faith. It is God who has the last word, reminding us that the best is still to come. Jesus is raised to new life by the sheer compelling energy of the Father’s love: the tomb could never be His permanent home. Despite the determined efforts of many down the ages, and now, to relegate Christianity and this fundamental belief to the dust of history, the empty tomb still poses a vibrant and challenging question, which refuses to go away and cries out to be answered. Ultimately it is not about faith which, faltering and hesitant though it may be, enables us to say: “I know my Redeemer lives.†The good news for us who believe is that the Father’s affirmation is not restricted to His beloved Son, but is given to all who are able to accept Jesus as Savior and Lord. The Easter Gospel, the message of Christ’s resurrection, keeps hope alive: death has been vanquished; death is not the end. The beautiful Sequence of the Mass today says it all: “Death with life contended: combat strangely ended! Life’s own Champion, slain, yet lives to reign…That Christ is truly risen from the dead we know. Victorious King, thy mercy show!†Alleluia!