Easter Sunday
Easter Sunday is when Christ arose from the dead. He had been crucified, dead, buried and then He rose from the dead on the third day just like He said He would and just like the prophets had prophesied years earlier. Mary Magdalene and a friend walked up to the grave to prepare Christ’s body for burial. Mary was a devout follower of Christ. They had been waiting to prepare His body for burial because in jewish tradition; they had to wait until the sabbath had passed to care for their deceased. Preparing the body for burial at that time entailed anointing the body and placing spices on it so it would make sense that they would be carrying baskets of needed items. As they walked they were discussing how they would roll the stone back in order to get inside the tomb when they came upon the open tomb. The stone had already been rolled back and the tomb was open for all to see. Seeing the tomb open, they panicked for fear someone had vandalized His resting place or worse stolen His body. When they looked into the tomb, the body was no longer there but there was a young man, an angel, sitting there. He told them to not be amazed as this was prophesied, Jesus is alive. He is risen. He is not here. What a marvelous statement. “He is Risen. He is not here!” The gospels all tell this story and each one is slightly different with slightly different questions. They are helping us to question the situation to understand. After hearing this they ran back to the disciples in excitement, fear, confusion, and joy. Telling them to hurry as Jesus is alive!
Each of the gospels tells the story of the crucifixion and how Jesus was found to have been raised form the dead. Each account is slightly different. In Matthew we are told, He is risen. He is no longer here. In Luke, we are told “ Why are you looking for a man who is alive in a place where death lives? and In Mark He emphasizes the fact that Mary, a woman, was the first to tell the disciples that Jesus had risen and this is a big deal because in that time testimony from a woman was not respected or trusted. This was a beautiful way of tying together Mary’s redemption of her life as well as God’s love and trust in women. John tells the story by focusing on the human nature of our God. I think honestly, this may be my favorite depiction of Christ. John talks about the reunion between Christ and his friends. I mean He discusses the way it would be if one of us were to have died and rise from the dead. you would have friends and family all celebrating and joyfully visiting in awe. That was John painting Christ in a warm, human like light.
Each gospel achieved a different goal in the telling of the resurrection. In matthew we learn about sovereign authority and how the jewish tradition may feel that he wasn’t the messiah but He is saying this is why I am. In Mark he is focused on a detailed straight to the point retelling of the resurrection while touching on the redemption of people. He purposely talks about how Mary, a woman shared the testimony of him being alive, and then says that Christ tells Mary to go and tell “The disciples and Peter” which we know is a redemptive and encouraging moment for them. In Luke, He makes sure to dive into each moment deeply. Ensuring that whoever read it felt that evidence was all there, that the eyewitness accounts were explained and accounted for, the goal, to have many convincing proofs of the resurrection. Lastly, John, He wrote his resurrection retelling in a way to share the love of Jesus Christ. The goal of his writing was to help people come to Christ.
Easter Sunday is my favorite holiday. I love everything about it. I love it’s deep meanings to its shallow meanings and I am so beyond fortunate to enjoy this Holiday in both ways. For my family, This day is all about being together to celebrate that we have a living God. We all get together the weekend of Easter. We get dressed up in our Easter best for Easter Sunday at church. Most of my life my father would be preaching so we would hear him preach and then go home. Now that He is a Superintendent he doesn’t typically preach on Easter and we can spend time together. We then return home and do our easter egg hunt. We love that and it is always such a bonding moment for the aunts and uncles with the nieces and nephews. Then everyone must find their easter baskets and open them up. The Easter bunny in our family is beyond kind and blesses us so much. We sing our favorite Hymn:
“Up From the Grave He Arose.
With a mighty Triumph o’er his foes.
He arose a vict’r of the dark domain
and He lives forever with His saints to reign
He arose, He arose, Hallelujah Christ arose. “
We then spend the rest of the day resting and enjoying each others company. That is always what I think God loves about how we celebrate. We focus on one another and the fact that we are all here today because of the immense sacrifice Christ made so that we could be with God the Father. I included some photos from this most recent Easter. It was so beautiful getting to spend all this time with family and friends to celebrate our risen God. I would love to hear about how each of you celebrate Easter in the comments!
