“Woman, why are you weeping?” Easter begins with a question.

Mary, why the tears? What has caused you such pain? Through her anguish, Mary cannot clearly see the figure who is asking her these questions. All she has are questions of her own: What have they done with my teacher, my friend, my Lord? Where have they taken his body? Why is this all happening?

You can understand why Mary mistakes Jesus to be the gardener. The dead just do not rise. Then he says her name, “Mary,” and the veil is lifted from her eyes. “Rabbi,” she cries and practically leaps into his arms with joy.

The disciples find it hard to believe, too, when Mary tells them about encountering him. It’s just too good to be true. Then they see him for themselves, and everything changes. So let me ask you a question: How does the approach of Easter find you? Are you questioning or believing?

If this is a believing time for you, wonderful. God bless you. You are a testimony to the power of the living God at work. If not, if this has been a bad time for you and you find yourself sinking lower, wondering whether anyone is out there to catch you, God bless you, too. You don’t need flowers and eggs and bunnies, but the real message of Easter: that God is not finished with your life quite yet, and can bring hope where there appears to be none.

Easter is not about chirping optimism and wishful thinking. It is about a Christ who meets us on the road of dashed hopes, who asks us with utter compassion to tell him about our tears, our struggles, and our losses, and then gives us a reason to live. As theologian Jurgen Moltmann says, “God weeps with us so we may someday laugh with him.”

Christ rises, and so can we. We, too, can be forgiven. We, too, can make a new start. Is it true? Is he alive? The Bible is far more interested in posing the question to us: Is it true for you? As in the first Easter, the resurrection cannot be proven but it can be experienced. We, too, can hear our names whispered in the early morning mist and have our lives given back to us again.

The gift of Easter is the faith that, even when all seems lost, and life looks bleak, God is working behind the scenes to make something new, something unexpected, something we cannot do for ourselves. This is the assurance of Easter when Bill Coffin said, we know that there is more mercy in God than there is sin in us and that Christ’s work in the world is never in vain.

Life is full of questions. Why did he have to die? How can I go on without her? Will I have enough to live on? What does the future hold in these uncertain times? To our questions and our confusion, God gives us this answer: “Christ is Risen. He Lives.” He won’t necessarily provide us with hard evidence or fancy proofs. He won’t snap his fingers and take away all our troubles. But he gives us Himself - a real, lasting presence that stands with us in all the dark nights and difficult days of our lives. Christ rose on Easter morning. And, by his grace, so can we.

Easter Blessings, 
Pastor Roy

P.S. Click the picture or link below to read the full April 2023 edition of The Beacon.