“Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen!” –Luke 24:5
There are two things that everyone has in common. No exceptions. It doesn’t matter where you come from, or how old or young you are. No matter your gender, your sexual orientation or the color of your skin. It is true whether you are poor or wealthy, powerless or powerful. There are two things that bind together every single human being who has ever lived or ever will live – and in fact, every living thing that has ever creeped upon the earth.
And it’s just this:
Every single one of us was, at some point in the past, born. And, unless Christ comes again in glory, every single one of us will, one day, die. This path from life to death is one that we all must follow. No exceptions.
But, during these Holy Days from Maundy Thursday through Easter Sunday we Christians tell a different story. As we sit and wait and watch between the darkness of Good Friday and the sunlight of Easter morning we travel a different path: the path from death to life, from the cross of Christ to an empty tomb. And it is this journey from death to life that makes all the difference to that other journey, the one from life to death, from birth to the grave that we all travel.
It is this journey from death to life that brings us hope, and even joy, as we travel the sometimes, even often times, difficult path we call “life.” It brings us hope, because the story of Jesus’ journey from death to life reminds us that God travels with us every day of our lives, and even more, that God will carry us through the deaths that will inevitably come to us and on into eternal life. The Good News of Easter is that God is not only with us, but that God’s steadfast love and enduring mercy and reconciling power is even more powerful than death itself!
Because of Jesus, we know this is true!
Someone -- I don’t remember who -- once said that the definition of “courage” is not “living without fear,” but the ability to live boldly in the face of fear, and even in spite of the fear. The truth that God is with us,
And that God’s love, mercy and reconciling power is stronger than death can give us the courage and the strength we need to face the dark days of our lives and the shadow of the valley of death as it descends upon us. It can give us the courage and strength we need to join God in living out God’s steadfast love, enduring mercy and reconciling power in the context of our own lives.
There are three things that every one of us has in common. No exceptions. Every one of us was, at some time in the past, born. And every one of us will, at some time in the future, die. And, because of Easter, we know that every single one of us is loved, deeply loved, by the God who created us, and who walks with us, both now and forever, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Have a Blessed Easter!
Bishop Mike.
Thanks for reading!