Easter Sunday 2023: He has Risen!

I wish everyone blessings on this glorious Resurrection Sunday. He has risen! He has risen indeed!

Mark tells us that after the Sabbath, when the sun had risen, that Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome went to the tomb where the body of Jesus was laid. They asked themselves, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?” (Mk. 16:3).^[1] The stone would have been rolled in front of the tomb securing the corpse inside and keeping things from the outside getting in.

Then came the biggest surprise. “Looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back—it was very large. And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed” (Mk. 16:4-5). This young man was an angel manifested and this dazzling spectacle got them startled. Luke tells us there were two of them (Lk, 24:4). Twice the dazzle!

One of the angels said “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.” (Mk. 16:6-7). What is this? Jesus alive! Resurrection took place? He is heading down to Galilee, go and find Him there? Such marvelous wonders are taking place.

Mark’s Gospel ends with “And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid” (Mk. 16:8).^[2] A bit of a mystery. But Mark’s audience would have figured the rest, after all the one telling them this good news of Jesus Christ, likely Peter, would have eventually heard from Mary Magdalene all that happened.

Our biggest fear in life is death. We are haunted by its nearness to us. Death has a cold caress, putrid stench, and bitter taste. All our sciences and philosophies are motivated to grappling with this dread of death. We try to build legacies only to be forgotten. We eat this but not that, we exercise to stay physically fit, we get our nightly rest, but optimal health might give us a few more years, a decade would be remarkable, a century fantastical, an eternity impossible. Death eventually comes for us, and nobody is ever prepared to go. Death is the enemy. But Christ defeats death through death. ”O death, where is your sting” (1 Cor. 15:55). Christ is risen from the death! He says to us: “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die” (Jn. 1:25-26). The problem of death that has evaded an answer through any of the life extension projects offered by philosophy and science, is fully and finally answered in Christ.^[3]

Neither the stone nor the bolts of the tomb
could hold Christ a captive;
Death lies conquered by him, he has
trampled on hell’s fiery chasm.
With him a throng of saints ascended to
heavenly regions,
And to many he showed himself, letting
them see and touch him.

Prudentius (c. 348-c. 410)^[4]

The curse of sin and death brought forth by Adam has been broken by Christ. The disrupted journey to union with the one and only true Triune God of the universe can now resume. The Son of God through the crucifixion, resurrection and ascension makes the way for humanity to come to the Heavenly Father through the power of the Holy Spirit. The Christian becomes part of the greatest adventure traveling with the Christ throughout eternity.

— WGN

---

[1] All Scripture cited from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), unless noted.

[2] See my post “Added or Removed: What Happened to the Ending of Mark?”

[3] See Clay Jones, “Immortal — Epicurus, Sam Harris and Bart Ehrman are Wrong: Death is Something,” Christian Research Journal, May 28, 2020, https://www.equip.org/articles/epicurus-sam-harris-and-bart-ehrman-are-wrong-death-is-something/ and Clay Jones, “Symbolic Immortality Projects Can’t Save You,” Christian Research Journal, 43, 2 [2020]: https://www.equip.org/articles/symbolic-immortality-projects-cant-save-you/

[4] Cited from Thomas C. Oden and Christopher A. Hall, eds., Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: Mark, Revised (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1998), 230.