A Easter Reflection

AN EASTER DAY REFLECTION

Today is a very different Easter Sunday. With all the restrictions in place on social distancing, Church buildings have to be closed on this special day. Christian communities around the world are in lockdown, along with the rest of the countries in which they live. We feel helpless, powerless and hopeless. Surely Easter shouldn’t be like this. But for the greater good, it needs to be like this. Therefore, we must ask ourselves, what does the resurrection mean to us at a time like this? How can we be encouraged by the truth of the resurrection?

When we recall the first Easter and the women who visited the tomb early that morning, we think of the mixed emotions the mixed emotions they must have felt: Sadness (at Jesus’ death), questions and doubts (about who would move the stone), a sense of devotion (which is why they went so early to anoint the body in the first place), surprise (at seeing the angel) and fear (at seeing these strange sights, especially the risen Jesus). It was a strange experience for them. A very different Sunday morning, just as it is for us, with all that’s happening around us with the coronavirus pandemic. We can identify with many of their emotions.

But as they come, as they try to make sense of what’s happening around them, the first words that angel speaks to them are significant. The angel says: “Don’t be afraid” (Matt 28:5b). In fact we are told that the Roman guards had become like “dead men’ for fear of what they had witnessed” (v.4). When these women came to the sealed tomb, they came as vulnerable, grief-stricken women, expecting to be confronted by hardened soldiers. Then there was an earthquake (v.2); They saw an angel (v.2), an empty tomb, and a missing body. They had every reason to fear. But they hear the assuring words: ‘don’t be afraid.’ Today, we know that Christ is risen but fear exists. Fear at what’s happening around us. Fear for our health, fear for our lives, fear for our loved ones… but when confronted with the power of God seen in Christ’s resurrection, may the words: “don’t be afraid” give us peace, for we know that death has been conquered. We believe in a powerful God.

The next words that the women hear are in the form of an invitation: “Come and See” (v.6). See what? Well, they came expecting to see the entrance blocked but they saw the stone had been moved; they came expecting to see soldiers but they an angel instead. They came expecting see a dead body but they found an empty tomb….and then the angel says that he knows what they were looking for (v.5). What are we looking for?  Are we looking for answers? Why is this happening? When will it stop? How do we understand the situation we find ourselves in?  May we hear the words of the angel: “Come and See”. Come and witness for yourself the power of God. A God who is so powerful that nothing can stand in his way, not even death. But to know this, to be strengthened by this, and, most importantly, to believe this, we need to come and see for ourselves.  

And the last instruction of the angel flows out from assuring them not to be afraid and to come and see for themselves; what they witness is so wondrous that it could not be kept to themselves. They witnessed the power of God. They witnessed the Risen Christ. They witnessed the defeat of death. And now they had a responsibility, an obligation to share that truth with others. The angel says: “Go and Tell!” (v.7). Be witnesses to the Risen Lord!! Shout it from the roof tops! Our God is a powerful God. The soldiers could not stop him. The grave could not hold him back. Death has lost its power. Christ is risen. Go and tell others about this. That was what the angel said to the women.

And as we look to the power that flows from the empty tomb, we share that news. We are people of hope. The forces of sickness and death can rage around but they cannot break our spirit or rob us of our peace. May we rediscover the wonder and amazement and mystery for that first Easter. May we experience afresh the power of God. May we allow that power to fill our hearts and minds with the truth that God is control. Don’t be afraid. Come and See. Christ is Risen. Go and tell.

The Lord is risen! He is risen indeed, Alleluia!