This Easter finds us in strange circumstances, isolated during a time of fear and uncertainty. It may seem like there is a shadow over our celebration, when we are unable to gather together and sing the hymns of the resurrection, to exchange the joyful yearly greeting, “He is risen!” “He is risen indeed!”
But for these very reasons our Easter faith must be especially dear this year. It is in the depths of winter, when all is dead and bitterly cold, that we long most fervently for spring. The days we lay a-bed sick make us long for good health we otherwise take for granted, and the great sorrows of life strip away all of the distractions that numb us, and fill us instead with sweet and desperate hope for the life to come.
That hope is the joy of Easter, the wonderful promise of resurrection, of unfading newness beyond all the loss and weakness and grief of this world. For our longing for eternity is not a vain wish of the human heart; it is an echo of God’s original design in our souls, and it points us to the wonderful salvation that God offers in Jesus Christ. This high and holy day sweeps away all darkness and gloom with the triumphant proclamation of resurrection life.
Jesus is alive—now, today, and forevermore. Jesus has risen from the grave, conquered death, and He offers life and freedom to all who come to Him. This is the message of Easter, the perennial proclamation of gospel hope to a world of uncertainty and sorrow.
How wonderful the news on that first Easter Sunday, when the women came to the sepulcher expecting to find Jesus dead and buried, entombed in stone. Instead, two angels met them, and said, ‘Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen!’” (Luke 24:5-6, NIV). And in this resurrection, we have a living Savior, and the promise of resurrection to eternal life for all who trust in Him.
Take heart, for it is Easter. He is risen! Risen, indeed.