Every time I read the four resurrection accounts I get chills down my spine. The problem is that when you read and study the Bible so much it is very easy to get "too familiar" with them, meaning that they loose their literary power, their ability to amaze the reader. I mean, yes I know that the disciples came to the tomb on the first Easter Sunday and rather than find a body they encountered an empty tomb. My gut reaction is "yea, we heard that before." Year after year, century after century these resurrection accounts have been told and retold and we say "okay, so what?" This is quite normal, been there, done that so to speak. Yet these early accounts of the Risen Lord are really amazing if you think about it. When you bury a body they should still be there after one, two, three, even four or five days. Yet not with Jesus, he was not there, he was raised from the dead! The story of the risen Lord is the core preaching and teaching of the early Church and is the foundation of our faith in Christ. On Easter Sunday Christians from around the world will proclaim the good news of the resurrection. Hopefully this will be a reminder that God fulfills his promises, that life is not just headed towards some dead end or a vast black hole, but we are created for eternal life with God, and Christ, and all the saints for ever and ever. This all starts on Easter Sunday.
May you all have a blessed, peaceful, and joyous Easter holiday.
The picture above is of the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem, one of the two contested "tombs" where Jesus was said to have been laid. The other "tomb" is in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which as far back as the fourth century was said to be the actual place where Jesus was laid.
