Risen Indeed

It’s more than a holiday. It’s more than bunnies and delicious candy. It’s even more than worship on a crisp, early Sunday morning with believers around the world.

It is the linchpin of all of human history. Sin dealt with. Atonement sealed. Redemption assured.

The promise of resurrection and the penalty for sin paid on an unmerited cross – but Sunday morning was on the way!

The resurrection is the ongoing promise that Jesus’ unmerited death gave us unmerited grace. On Easter Sunday this is the good news we proclaim.

Saint Augustine, the bishop of a small Egyptian town, Hippo, preached my favorite sermon on Easter. He said:

The glory of the Resurrection. In what glory? Listen to the Apostle speaking of this body: It is sown in dishonour, it shall rise in glory (I Cor. 15:43). The Apostles were unwilling to give this glory to their Master, their Christ, their Lord; they had not begun to believe He could raise His Body from the dead; they did not believe even their own eyes, and when they saw His Body they supposed it was a spirit they saw. Yet we believe those who preach Him to us, though they do not show Him. And they did not believe Christ, showing Himself to them.

A grievous wound: let the remedy of the scars appear! Why are you troubled, and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet , where I was fastened by nails. Handle, and see. You see, and you do not see. Handle, and see.  See what? That a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as you see me to have. And when he had said this, so it is written, he showed them his hands and feet.

See and know that Jesus is risen – risen indeed.