EASTER JOY: THE STORY CONTINUES …

“Christ is risen!”

“He is risen, indeed!”

Alleluia, blessed Easter greetings!

Early this morning years and years ago, Mary Magdalene, Peter, and most likely John, felt the beginning of Easter joy. If we’ve faithfully followed Jesus in His journey throughout Lent and Holy Week, we feel that same joy this morning, too.

Happiness is no stranger to us. What makes Easter joy different?

It’s not just an emotion. It’s a deep sense of gratitude for the gift of new life – life that’s come at a great price. It’s wonder at the thought that we could mean so much to someone that they’d willingly sacrifice and die for us. It’s reverent acknowledgement that someone wants a real relationship with us so badly they’d do anything to have it.

For the apostles who now see their risen Master in eternity, that joy must be overflowing and ever-present.  Is it the same for us still on pilgrimage? We weren’t physically there at the suffering, death, and burial of Jesus. Distance of time and space dulls the senses somewhat, so although we know what His death and resurrection mean for our salvation, can we say we fully appreciate this gift of new life and what it means for our daily living?

Easter joy is understood in a special way by those who know what it means to have life because of the sacrifice of others – in this case, One other.

Think of a couple – like Abraham and Sarah - longing for a child of their own. They try all means possible, they make every sacrifice, they’re not willing to accept a ‘No’. But the cradle is empty. When God, the only Giver of life, gives them a child – that sort of joy is Easter.

Think of a mother desperate to bring her son out of his reckless way of living. She does everything in her power, sacrificing her health and peace of mind to snatch him out of trouble time and again, not willing to accept his ‘No’. She refuses to give up on him and turns the task over to God, the finder of lost sheep. When her son comes back on the right path, her kind of joy is Easter.

For Simeon and Anna, Easter joy must have come way before Easter itself. When they realised that Israel wasn’t lost or forgotten, that salvation was already at hand… that quiet joy was Easter.

When Jesus opened the eyes of Paul, who then realised the gift of new life in the Messiah, after persecuting the believers – that was Easter joy.

God wasn’t willing to accept a ‘No’, either. Imagine our Father gazing into the past, present, and future, and knowing that His chosen people wouldn’t understand how much they meant to Him, that they wouldn’t be willing to enter into a full relationship with Him (because most of us are just that selfish and self-centered and relationships take so much work…), and refusing to let us (not just the Israelites) go, He wanted to snatch us out of permanent trouble once and for all. And Jesus offered Himself as the solution.

Imagine the pain of the Father letting His Son make that decision, respecting His choice.

God had a thousand Good Fridays before we ever had a Holy Week.

Receiving His Son back into His eternal embrace must have been the ultimate Easter joy because their separation was over.

Which brings us to our Easter today.

Easter doesn’t cancel the tomb. Jesus will soon go to His apostles with the wounds still in His hands and side. Peter makes sure, when he addresses Cornelius and his household, that they understand that Jesus’ death and resurrection are part of the one, same story of salvation, and that the apostles are witnesses to both events. And that story is ongoing.

While we rejoice and give thanks for the glory of the resurrection, the shadow of the Cross still looms behind the image of the risen Saviour. While we’ve been brought back to ‘true life with Christ’, Paul tells the Colossians, we can’t sit back and enjoy the happiness. Jesus is our life, and as we continue our pilgrimage, we’ve got to keep our focus on ‘heavenly things’, because a blood-price was paid for us to get there. We have to get rid of our reckless, sin-stained selves and make the effort to turn into ‘a completely new batch of bread’ as Paul tells the Corinthians.

‘Unleavened’. Sin-free.

Not only that; because the story’s not over, Peter adds that we have a mission: to proclaim to others that ‘all who believe in Jesus will have their sins forgiven through His name’. We’re the blessed ones, the chosen ones, who’ve accepted the love of the Father and are (hopefully) working on reciprocating that love. But we have to unselfishly bring it to others, too, because God wants so many, many more to say Yes to accepting His love.

Because, in the end, that’s the story of Easter. It’s a love story, deeper than the love of a parent for a child, stronger than the longing of a childless couple, more fervent than the faith of the righteous and devout.  It’s the love story of a Father who refuses to watch us die so He did it Himself.

Today, as we thank God the Father for His endless love, God the Son for His unimaginable sacrifice, and God the Holy Spirit for wanting to live within our very being so we won’t ever be separated, we need to take a moment to think of what we can do, starting now, to make real changes in our thinking and actions to return that real and wonderful love.

If we can do that, Easter joy will live on, always, in our hearts. And our love story will never end…

Blessed Easter joy to all!

Article by Joyce Norma, HFC Blog Contributor