Resurrection Sunday

He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. (Matthew 28:6)

​If you attended Passion Week services or have been following Passion Week celebrations online or otherwise, then this past week has been a mix of emotions of joy and sorrow.  Sorrow as we reflected upon the difficult week our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ suffered through and experienced during his last days on earth.  Maundy-Thursday, the night on which Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper, but also the night on which he prayed in great anguish in the garden of Gethsemane, sweating great drops of blood, knowing what await him, knowing that in a few short hours he would experience one of the most cruel and tormenting means of death ever devised my man.  Then on Good Friday, along with the rest of Christendom, we reflected on the day in which Christ suffered and died.  In hindsight, we recognize that the cross of Christ was a glorious event, but at the time it would have been a heart-wrenching, tear-jerking, confusing event for his disciples.  To watch the person they loved so dearly, the person who had brought them so much hope and joy and peace, die on a cross would have been very difficult and confusing.  But today we celebrate the fact that his death was not the end of the story.  Rather, it was the beginning of the end for death, sin, and Satan.  This was the day, two-thousand years ago, in which “death is swallowed up in victory.  O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” (1 Cor. 15:54-55).  On this day Christ conquered the grave for all those for whom he died, for all those who place faith in him alone for their salvation.  Today is a day of celebration and praise for all Christ has done for his people!  He has risen indeed!