Collect and Readings for Easter Sunday – Jeremiah 31.1-6, Psalm 118.1-2, 14-24, Colossians 3.1-4, Acts 10.34-43, John 20.1-18, Matthew 28.1-10
The Prayer for today
Lord of all life and power, who through the mighty resurrection of your Son overcame the old order of sin and death to make all things new in him: grant that we, being dead to sin and alive to you in Jesus Christ, may reign with him in glory; to whom with you and the Holy Spirit be praise and honour, glory and might, now and in all eternity. Amen.
Just as in the story of creation, God rests on the Sabbath, when his great, creative work is complete, so now there has been a Sabbath of rest following the completion of this great re-creative work of salvation. In Jesus’ last cry on the cross, ‘It is finished!’, there was the sense of accomplishment and completion, and now, in the dark of early morning on Sunday, the tomb is no place to stay and linger.
It is wonderfully human that all accounts of the resurrection are slightly different; just as in any lifechanging, dynamic event, people’s accounts of the details are fused with their attempts to interpret and grasp the significance of what has happened. What is clear beyond all doubt is that somehow they began to understand the extraordinary truth – that Jesus had died but was no longer dead, in the human sense of the word. He was totally alive, but not in the merely human way – like Lazarus, for instance – where it would only be a matter of time before death came again.
Jesus, having gone into death with the power of life, and with selfless love untarnished, could not be held there, but broke out into a new kind of life that was never going to end. Compared with this life, death is shadowy and powerless; it is temporary suffering and a journey of darkness which leads into unending daylight.
Peter and the other disciples can tell it from first-hand experience. They have actually seen Jesus fully alive, and have even eaten and drunk with him. Not that they were any different from the rest of us in finding it all impossible at first to imagine and believe; Jesus had been preparing them for this, but they still didn’t really expect it to happen. After all, full life like this, after that very definite and horrific death through crucifixion, is simply impossible. Isn’t it?
Like a catapult that has been stretched right back in one direction, the force of a sudden change of direction is very vigorous. Having been through the bewildered acceptance of Jesus’ death and having lived a couple of days with numbing absence, the truth shoots them into a passion for telling everyone the amazing news, once they are equipped with the Holy Spirit’s anointing. It is those who are witnesses to what God has done in their lives who tell the good news of the Gospel for real. And that is what convinces others of the truth which has power to transform their entire life, both in time and after death.
Some things to reflect on:
• Look at the different reactions of those who were at the tomb. What convinced them that the Resurrection was a real event?
• How is Jesus’ resurrection life different from before he died?
God bless
Rev’d Fiona Robinson
