BELIEVE IN THE RESURRECTION
When the world seems a defeat for God and you are sick with the disorder, the violence, the terror, the war on the streets; when the earth seems to be chaos, say to yourself, “Jesus died and rose again on purpose to save, and his salvation is already with us.”
Every departing missionary is an act of faith in the resurrection.
Every peace treaty is an act of faith in the resurrection.
Every agreed commitment is an act of faith in the resurrection.
When you forgive your enemy
When you feed the hungry
When you defend the weak
you believe in the resurrection.
When you have the courage to marry
When you welcome the newly-born child
When you build your home
you believe in the resurrection.
When you wake at peace in the morning
When you sing to the rising sun
When you go to work with joy
you believe in the resurrection.
—Carlo Carretto in “Blessed Are You Who Believed”
HURRY TO THE TOMB
The Easter vigil gives us a sense of urgency as people hurry to and from an empty tomb.
We must shake off our comas and stupors and lazy sleeping. We must arise and go with the risen Lord toward the fullness of light and peace. Time and eternity intersect, finitude and infinity lose their boundaries. All creation is gathered to a great oneness—now!
—Robert F. Morneau in “Ashes to Easter”
A PURIFYING WIND
Socrates mastered the art of dying; Christ overcame death as “the last enemy” (1 Cor. 15:26). There is a real difference between the two things; the one is within the scope of human possibilities, the other means resurrection. It’s not from ars moriendi, the art of dying, but from the resurrection of Christ, that a new and purifying wind can blow through our present world… . If a few people really believed that and acted on it in their daily lives, a great deal would be changed. To live in the light of the resurrection—that is what Easter means.
—Dietrich Bonhoeffer in “The Martyred Christian”
WINGS OF ETERNITY
In the midst of a storm, a little bird was clinging to the limb of a tree, seemingly calm and unafraid. As the wind tore at the limbs of the tree, the bird continued to look the storm in the face, as if to say, “Shake me off; I still have wings.”
Because of Christ’s resurrection, each Christian can look the experience of death in the face and confidently say, “Shake me off; I still have wings. I’ll live anyway.”
—Wayne A. Lamb in “100 Meditations on Hope”
THE SUPERGLUE OF LOVE
As I contemplate the cross, I grasp that its wonder is not in its appearance, but in the Superglue of love that took Christ to the cross and held him there.
—Katie Funk Wiebe in “The Christian Leader” (Feb. 1995)
Laughter of the redeemed
Easter is a feast and is celebrated as the feast of freedom. For Easter is the beginning of the laughter of the redeemed and the dance of the liberated and the creative game of fantasy. Since earliest times Easter hymns have celebrated the victory of life by laughing at death, by mocking at hell, and by making the lords of this world absurd. Easter is God’s protest against death. Easter is the feast of freedom from death. We must keep the two things together.
—Jurgen Moltmann in “Experiences of God”
Turning night to day
Haunting gloom and
flitting shades,
Ghastly shapes, away!
Christ is rising,
and pervades
Highest Heaven with day.
He with His bright spear
the night
Dazzles and pursues:
Earth wakes up,
and glows with light
Of a thousand hues.
—John Henry Newman, from “Lauds—Wednesday,” in “Prayers, Verses, and Devotions”
CORONATION
We understand and acknowledge that the Resurrection has placed a glorious crown upon all of Christ’s sufferings!
—A. W. Tozer in “Renewed Day by Day”
LIVING HOPE
You could speak of Jesus’ rising as the most hopeful (hope-full) thing that has ever happened—and you would be right!
—J. I. Packer in “Your Father Loves You”
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