What difference does Easter make anyway? It makes a lot of difference to those who are in touch enough
with reality to take life and death seriously. It made a big difference to a very real woman named Mary. Mary had the heart-wrenching honor of washing the dried blood from Jesus’ lifeless body as others prepared the tomb for His body to lie. As she washed she remembered . . . She came from a good home in Magdala, a town along the coast of Galilee. She remembered her teen age years. She remembered how she hated herself for what she did and often thought life was not worth living. Then she met Jesus and felt His accepting love and how His eyes seemed to penetrate her very soul. The demons who had haunted her were commanded to be gone. After that, a gentle, peace filled her existence filled her life until Jesus’ horrendous death. Was all her hope for nothing? What of the thousands of diseased bodies that He had healed? The broken lives He had restored? All the promises of the Kingdom of God, Jesus talked about. But early Sunday morning, Mary was back at the tomb to finish anointing His body. When she arrived, the tomb stood open, the huge stone pushed to the side. The Romans were gone, just the ashes of their smoldering fire remained. “He’s gone! They stole the body of my Lord,” she cried as she ran to tell the apostles. But it wasn’t cruelty that rolled away the stone that Easter morning. It was the powerful hand of God as Jesus Christ stepped forth brimming with life. Mary saw Jesus, mistaking Him for the gardener. There was no mistaking His familiar voice— “Mary.” She fell at His feet, tears of grief melting into tears of .” “Rabbani,” she said as she looked into his face. “Teacher.” In an instant history changed forever, because where once the human mortality rate held steady at 100%, now it skipped a beat as Jesus, Savior of all mankind, stepped out of the dead statistics and into life. Death is the last word no longer for Jesus’ followers, life is. “Jesus,” Mary would tell us, “He has changed my life.” And millions around the world echo, “Mine, too, He touched my life as well.” For while religious leaders have come and gone, the fact remains: only One stepped forth from the tomb. Only One has risen from the dead. Only One has conquered death. Only One offers the promise of eternal life to those who follow Him. “I am the resurrection and life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.” So why do Jesus’ followers gather in churches on Easter morning? To show off their Easter finery? No, they come to celebrate the victory of life over death, and to declare that Jesus Christ has risen! We hope you will join us this Easter Sunday. He Has Risen! He Has Risen, Indeed!
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