Luke 24:5-6 “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen!”

I don’t know to what degree angels experience emotion, but this must have been a fun message to deliver, besides being the highest of privileges. We can only imagine the total confusion it generated in the women, and how completely incredible it seemed to the disciples when they relayed it. Even though Jesus had been telling His followers for months, at least, that He would have to go through Passion Week, culminating in resurrection, it was so outside their experience that they really couldn’t absorb what He was saying to them. With the angels’ reminder they did remember, but the pieces still didn’t seem to fit. After all, they had watched Him die in the most horrible of manners, so beaten and bloody that he hardly seemed human. We tend to dress the whole story up, with Easter parades and eggs and bunnies and chocolate, when actually it was the most raw story imaginable. That’s one reason far too many churches lack the life that is found in the Risen Lord. If Easter is relegated to a spring festival centered around a fable, there is no life in it at all. It is only when we say (or sing) with complete conviction, “I serve a risen Savior; He’s in the world today,” that we experience His life flowing through us as His agents and representatives.

This year I have been particularly reminded of the song, “He Lives,” with which my mother very wisely reassured me of my own salvation so many years ago. I remember during the “God is dead” hoopla around the time I was in seminary that someone put out a bumper sticker that said, “God’s not dead; I talked with Him this morning.” That truth is of the utmost importance. Without the resurrection, Christianity is just a philosophy, and an impossibly hard one to follow at that. I must never gloss over the resurrection in my presentation of the Gospel, because God has to reveal it to someone’s heart before they can truly be born again with resurrection life.

Father, thank you for today! It’s a very full one in many respects, with the Sunrise Service in just a few minutes, our regular service to follow, including placing Brother Kobayashi’s ashes in the columbarium, and then a church board meeting after lunch. However, all of that pales in comparison with the reality that my Lord Jesus Christ is risen. Help me, help us all, operate in the joy of that awareness each moment, not just today but every day, so that we may be strong against every attack and bring Your kingdom to this city, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!