Easter Joy

On Easter Sunday morning I joined millions of believers and seekers around the world in celebration of the great good news of the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. With Charles Wesley we lifted our voices to sing “Christ the Lord is risen today.” Whether with those traditional words or in more contemporary language we all affirmed the core belief of our Christian faith: that on the third day the stone was rolled away and Jesus was raised from the dead. “In fact,” Paul wrote, “Christ has been raised from the dead.” (1 Corinthians 15:20). Hallelujah!

Throughout the weeks leading up to Easter, I kept thinking about and praying one of the great phrases that has been passed down through many Christian faith traditions: the joy of the Resurrection renews the whole world. In some traditions the past tense of the verb is used, renewed, reminding us of what happened on that first day of the week. I have come to pray and ponder it in the present tense: renews. The joy of the Resurrection is a present reality that continues to renew and reshape all of creation.

John 20:19 introduces the account of the resurrected Jesus appearing to the disciples for the first time. The news of the rolled-away stone and the risen Jesus has been shared and one would think there would be overwhelming joy and excitement. Instead we read that the disciples are huddled together in a room behind locked doors, “for fear.” Thomas even chose not even to show up, still overcome perhaps with grief. What’s going on here? Where is the joy in response to God’s power conquering death and fear and uncertainty?

The phrase kept swirling through my mind and heart in the days leading up to Easter as I watched, read, and listened to reports coming from Brussels. I prayed for victims and for families and for the whole world gripped with fear and uncertainty. It was more real to me as I remembered the many trips I have made through the Brussels airport and could picture the check-in counters and the waiting areas where I have stood. I even remembered the trip that included “lost” luggage and a missed connection and hours that turned into days stranded at that airport. Fear. Panic. Pain. Frustration.

The need for the whole world to be renewed is clearly evident. Perfect love – God’s steadfast love – casts out fear. And the joy of the Resurrection renews the world. What God did at Resurrection was to restore hope and renew life when it felt as if darkness and the forces of evil had won. We are entrusted with this news and cannot keep it bottled up inside the church, behind apparently locked doors, just for the insiders. Our joy in the Resurrection sends us out into the mission field that is as close to us as our neighborhoods and communities. We are the joyful witnesses to God’s transforming, resurrecting power – not living in fear but serving faithfully.

May the joy of the resurrection renew each one of you, each of our churches and, indeed, the whole world. In the words of Charles Wesley,

“Soar we now where Christ has led / Following our exalted Head
Made like him, like him we rise / Ours the cross, the grave, the skies, Alleluia!”