Easter Sunday – A quiet acclamation

Alleluia! Christ is risen!

He is risen indeed. Alleluia!

These are the words that ring out at the beginning of our Easter Day services, but not this year, this year is very different.

When it comes to the retelling of that first Easter morning we like the image of Mary Magdalen meeting the risen Christ in the garden, surrounded by spring flowers with the light of dawn filtering through the trees, but there is another story to be told.

‘On the evening of the first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” ‘ (John 20:19)

If John wanted to tell of the resurrection in a time of lockdown he could not have done a better job. No romantic vision of stained-glass Jesus in the garden. No triumphalist ‘we have won’. Just a group of tired scared disciples wondering what will become of them.

Yet in the midst of them is the risen Christ. In their pain and confusion Jesus brings His peace. And John tells us they were overjoyed. He does not say they rushed out in fact they seem to stay just as they were until the time was ready to go out into the world.

In our lockdown situation we too can find Jesus in the midst of us. In our pain and confusion of these days we can know the peace of Jesus.

“Amazing love! How can it be that thou, my God, should die for me?” (Charles Wesley)

God bless and stay safe,

Alan.