He is risen!!

It is early morning, still dark outside, the birds sing softly in the distance, and just the hint of a dawn in the ever so slightly lightening sky. In the quietness of our house, I think of other homes, other women, over 200o years ago. They were the ones who had stayed to the bitter end and witnessed the burial of their beloved Lord, the hasty anointing with spices and wrapping of the burial cloths. They would never ever rid their minds of the terrible images of the brutality and unspeakable violence as their Jesus was tortured and nailed to a cross and bled and died.

In the following days, they did as women always do--they kept going and doing and tending to the needs of their families and homes, but in a shocked and desperate silence and despair. How could it be? How could such a One be murdered--the One they were so absolutely certain was the Son of God? How could God die? How could they go on in such a world devoid of all hope?

And yet, early on Easter morning, just a morning such as this, while their families slept and the house was dark and quiet, they tiptoed out the door, carrying the spices they would need to anoint the body. They trudged through the dark streets, still quietly weeping and stunned. Their bodies exhausted from the lack of sleep after witnessing the worst event in human history, they still managed to struggle through the winding lanes, holding their lanterns and baskets of spices. Somehow, they must do one last thing for the One who had done everything for them.

They had no idea how they would get into the tomb, or how they might persuade the soldiers to let them see His body. They could no longer think or reason, they just knew somehow they had to go, had to try, one last time, for Him. Even in despair, love pushes us on.

I love the simplicity of Matthew's Gospel: "And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women, 'Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for He has risen, as He said. Come, see the place where He lay. Then go quickly and tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead, and behold, He is going before you to Galilee; there you will see Him. See I have told you." (Mt.28:2-7)

Could there have ever been more glorious words uttered on the face of the planet? "He is not here!" "for He has risen, as He said!" I have tried and tried to imagine what those dear women must have felt experienced, and it is just beyond human reason. From the deepest, darkest pit of despair to the highest high of joy and exultation. From fear to faith. From worry to worship. From preparing to anoint His body to rushing to announce His resurrection. O glorious day! O glorious day!

And I love the angel's first words: "Do not be afraid..." Reminds me of another angel 30 some years earlier proclaiming Jesus' entrance into the world. That angel told Mary and the shepherds not to be afraid, for as he told Mary, "Do not be afraid... behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end." (Lk 1:30-33)

As He came into this world, so His was raised, and so He will reign forever and ever. And so as we rejoice this Easter sunday, might we recall that angel's words and put our fear aside and ask God to give us faith, whatever we are going through or facing. Just as those women turned their weeping into worship, might we worship Him whose resurrection assures us that our failures are never final, our weaknesses can be made into strengths, our sorrows transformed into joy--because of who He is and what He has done. Our deaths are not a wall but a door. As Peter Marshall declared: No tabloid will ever print the startling news that the mummified body of Jesus of Nazareth has been discovered in old Jerusalem. Christians have no carefully embalmed body enclosed in a glass case to worship. Thank God, we have an empty tomb. The glorious fact that the empty tomb proclaims to us is that life for us does not stop when death comes. Death is not a wall but a door. And eternal life which may be ours now, by faith in Christ, is not interrupted when the soul leaves the body, for we live on ... and on."

He is risen! He is risen! He is risen! He is risen! HE IS RISEN! HE IS RISEN INDEED!