There’s a lovely old story about children who were asked to bring plastic Easter eggs to Church on Easter Day, filled with something that would symbolise the meaning of the resurrection. One child’s egg contained a tiny flower to speak of the new life that springs forth at Easter. Another egg contained a crayoned picture of Jesus. Another contained a small nail to remind people about the nails of the cross; and another contained a pebble to represent the stone that had guarded the tomb. Each child had brought something to help the church think about the resurrection, but everyone was speechless when the egg brought by seven year old Brian was opened. Brian had learning difficulties, and as his egg was opened there was nothing inside. Brian spoke up loudly and clearly, “It’s full of emptiness – just like the tomb of Jesus”; and his was the best lesson of all.
The angels declared, “He is not here; he has risen” (24:6)! And the implications of this statement are literally out of this world.
The preaching of the early Church was filled with the death and resurrection of Jesus. In his first recorded preaching after the resurrection St. Peter stood with the disciples to address a crowd and said, “God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact” (Acts 2:32). He also said, “God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold of him” (Acts 2:24).
St. Paul, before becoming a Christian himself, threw many of those early Christians into prison. He gave approval to the killing and arrest of believers (Acts 7:54-8:3); but after a dramatic encounter with the risen Jesus he was changed (Acts 9). He wrote much of the New Testament and preached the resurrection.
In one of his letters (1 Corinthians 15:14) he writes, “If [Jesus] has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith”. He goes on to say, “If our hope in [Jesus] is good only for this life, we are worse off than anyone else” (1 Cor 15: 19); but St. Paul then asserts with the confidence of a man who met the risen Lord Jesus himself: “But Christ has indeed been raised” (1 Cor 15:20).
Elsewhere Paul is clear about the results of believing in the resurrection. He writes, ‘If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord”, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved’ (Romans 10:9).
Paul is also clear about the power for resurrection living: “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised [Jesus] from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you” (Romans 8:11).
Those words spoken by the angels at the empty tomb on that first Resurrection Sunday are also for us: “He is not here: he has risen!” Friends, this is Good News!
William Sangster was the senior Minister at Westminster Central Hall Methodist Church during the Second World War and beyond. Sunday by Sunday 3000 people would be stirred by his passionate preaching. In the 1950s he was diagnosed with the neurological disorder Muscular Atrophy that progressively paralysed his body and eventually his vocal chords. At Easter, just before he died in 1960, Sangster managed to scribble a note to his daughter: ‘How terrible to wake up on Easter and have no voice to shout, “He is risen!”’ The note ended, ‘Far worse, to have a voice and not want to shout.’
The implications of the resurrection of Jesus are out of this world – but the implications impact this world right here and right now.
He is risen! If you’ve put your trust in Jesus then his Spirit lives in you; and if his Spirit lives in you that is the same Holy Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead. What was dead has come to life and that includes you and me. We were dead in our sins but now we’re alive in Christ and that same power is in us. Christ in me. His resurrection, healing power is in us, to be poured out for the lost, the lonely, the broken, the hurting and the sick. Jesus said, “I tell you the truth anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing” (John 14:12). Raise your hands if you want to do the things Jesus did. Don’t be shy. Lord, we need lives filled with the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead, and hands ready to take his healing on to the streets.
He is risen! Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. He [or she] who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die” (John 11: 25-26). If we trust in Jesus we don’t need to fear death in this life. Let’s pray!
