A Devotional for Easter
By Pastor Rushan Sinnaduray
Alleluia! Christ is Risen.
Christ is risen, indeed. Alleluia!
Easter Sunday. Tradition has it as the most important day in the life of the Christian church. For it is the day when we hear again not just the stories of an ending but the stories of new beginnings.
On Easter Sunday we celebrate something fabulous and curious in the story of God and the story of Jesus and… in our story as children of God.
After the fear of the arrest, trial and execution of Jesus, we read the account of his being laid in a borrowed tomb. And at Easter, we listen to the women’s astonishing witness: he is not here.
The Easter story is a story that, in its quiet, profound truth, brings us to our knees.
It’s the whisper of an angel – “He is not here.” It’s the testimony of a woman – “I have seen the Lord.” And then the transformation of a group of frightened disciples into witnesses who quite literally changed the course of world history and would not deny this story even through their own torture and death.
Easter is a threshold over which we pass – and although we might feel reluctant, or resistant, or we might feel as if we are stepping into the complete unknown with unknown dangers in front of us, we’re presented with a choice to make that step.
Threshold moments often feel like the end of something, but in fact it’s just the beginning. Somehow in our most profound life experiences of death and birth, of love and loss, there are moments of realization; this is real, I didn’t know this before, now I know what it means.
I pray this Easter season that the Easter story challenges us to live lives of joy, of faith and compassion. I pray that the Easter story challenges you and me to be steadfast in the face of injustice and gentle in the face of violence and to always speak truth to power with courage. I pray that the Easter story challenges you and me to let our lives be characterized by a search for wisdom and challenges us to witness to the love in Jesus Christ for all people without exception – this love which lives, and dies and lives again as it irrigates our souls and sustains us in our daily life.
