Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.

Writing a blog for Easter Day as a priest is not an easy task. There is so much that one wants to say about God and what God has done in and through Jesus; in his passion and death, and through raising Jesus from the dead into a new way of life that transforms the person inside out. And that has made me stop and realize that we are going to have a whole season of Easter and so for the moment, I can somewhat relax and remind myself that at this moment there is only one thing that need be said: Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again. I say this to all of us, including me so that we might remind ourselves that Easter is  not just about one day. It is about everyday that leads us into eternity. So, in a real sense, Easter is not finished. At least not yet.

Easter is both a promise and a duty for everyone who claims to be a follower of Jesus Christ. There is the promise of abundant life in Christ as we follow him to the places and spaces where we are to minister, work, play and be. In Christ there is life and we need to live that life so that other people will see it and want it. It is not a perfect little life with no challenges, bumps, scrapes and bruises. Jesus risen body will tell us that. He continues to bear those awful marks that we inflicted on him. What the Christian life is about is the grace, the joy and the love that allow us to live those moments knowing that God has acted and that someday this world is going to be a different: a better, a transformed place and we are in this moment invited to come and follow that we might participate in that world.

Easter is also our Christian duty to announce to the world as the “young man” did. To tell the world that the grave is empty and we will not finding the living among the dead. The cross was our doing and what our world wants. The empty cross and grave is what God wants and has done for us. The stone was rolled a way but have you ever considered why? Jesus didn’t need to get out, making the resurrection a reality. God allowed us in to see the place where the body lay so that we might ask the question, “Where did he go?” In and of themselves the cross and the empty grave are not proof that Jesus rose from the dead. What proves it is the Church encountering him time and time again. The grave, the cross and the community of Christ all point to what is going on. Those who want to know the reality of what has happened have to come within to discover it.

Jesus met his disciples after his death and they knew that they knew it was him; warts, scares and all. And in time they too learned to overcome their fear and that above all else there is one thing that needs to be said to this world: Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ is coming again.