THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK
The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre.
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
There is nothing symbolic about the Resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord. It is the most real of events and one for which our hearts should burst with thanks and our lips with God’s praises.
From the darkness of the tomb, the Light of the World has come forth to shine for and upon each and every one of us. Death has been conquered forever.
Our belief in the reality of that first Easter morning is enshrined in the creedal statement, the third day He rose again. Most of us repeat that statement so often and accept it so unquestioningly that it barely touches us. That is sad, because at the very least it leaves us detached from the full glory of the Easter morn, especially that first Easter morn.
On that blessed morning, Mary and the other women with her, who are named by the other Evangelists, arrived at Christ’s tomb before dawn. They leave us an example in that it behooves every Christian to seek God early each day. It is especially good to do that in that period of quiet while the sun remains below the horizon and the birds sleep on. There is a time then, sometimes all too brief, when we have a blessed calm before the cares of the day begin to crowd in on us.
To reconnect with God’s glory, I use a simple devotion I found in a small 19th Century book of devotions. On waking I recite :
Glory be to God the Father, who hath created me.
Glory be to God the Son, who hath redeemed me.
Glory be to God the Holy Ghost, who sanctifieth me.
Blessed be the Holy and undivided Trinity, now and forever.
That helps to bring God to the fore and keep the world at bay. And it reminds me that God’s glory is all around us. We live in His created universe, we are His created and if we are living as Christians should live, we are the very expression of His glory, inadequate though that expression may be.
But never was His glory more obvious than on that first Easter morn. The open tomb changes the Cross from the seat of unutterable agony and shame to the throne of Almighty power and incandescent majesty.
The open tomb also changes our perception of our Lord. Christ our teacher, our healer and the one perfect, perpetual sacrifice for our sins has become, through His mighty Resurrection, the Conqueror of death; the renewal and example of our daily duty; the well spring and Author of eternal life. The fact of the Resurrection allows us to trust Him in all these things, those which pertain to Him as perfect man and those which are in Him as perfect God.
And it is as perfect God that we greet Jesus Christ on this Easter morn, God the Son, who we may come to know just because He is our Resurrected, Living Saviour.
Mere repetition of the words, the third day He rose again, does not meant that we know the risen, living Christ.
We know Him as Risen Lord only in so far as we meet Him in the poor; visit Him in the prisoner; pray for Him in the persecuted. We know Him to the extent we live our lives in His image, recognize His presence in the Holy Sacraments He appointed and trust absolutely that He is our sure guide to that promised home in His Father’s House.
We know He is risen from the dead when we turn to Him for help each time we stumble; each time we are afraid; each time we are unsure; each time the world the flesh and the devil beset us.
We know Him as our Living Lord when we seek and in His great mercy He sends, His Holy Spirit to make of our hearts a temple fit for Him to call home.
Alleluia! Christ is risen, Alleluia!
Peter Jardine+
Easter Sunday, 2006