Easter brings message of hope

ARCHDEACON JONATHAN GALE

27 Mar, 2023

Easter. It’s the central celebration of the Christian church and is much misunderstood because it deals with a strange concept – resurrection. Who knows where bunnies and chocolate came from, but hey, we enjoy them too.

Resurrection (the physical coming to life again of someone who had been dead) is what the scriptures claim happened to Jesus three days after he was killed on a wooden cross by Roman soldiers.

In spite of many written accounts of people who witnessed Jesus alive after he was killed, we struggle with the idea. Dead people normally stay dead.

However, for the church through the ages, the resurrection of Jesus remains central. For me it was never a problem as once I accepted the existence of God, I knew all kinds of miraculous events were likely to be associated with him.

Boxers talk about telescoping a punch, that slight movement of the shoulder in such a manner that their opponent reads it before it happens. Likewise, the resurrection points towards the future renewal of creation, the final defeat of death, in fact the resurrection of all humans at some future stage when Christ returns to wrap things up in a glorious unification of heaven and earth. In short, the resurrection signals the inauguration of the Kingdom of God, which was Jesus’ central message.

Resurrection reverses the natural order. It turns despair into hope, sorrow into joy. That is what Easter means to Christians. None of this happens without Jesus. He is central to it all because this ‘new creation’ was God’s plan for us all along.

This message of hope speaks to us all. When we are going through tough times, it’s worth remembering that there is light at the end of the tunnel. A ‘happy Easter’ is really a hopeful, even a joyful Easter.

n EASTER SERVICES: Good Friday a Tenebrae Service, 7pm and Easter Sunday a Eucharist Service, 9am at Christ the King Church, Molesworth Drive, Mangawhai.

Archdeacon Jonathan Gale