The Christian Church services celebrated in the days leading up to Easter Sunday are full of powerful moments that enable us to know what God has done for us through his Son Jesus Christ.
The death and resurrection of Jesus allows us to experience how God continues to work in the world and just as importantly in us.
We read in the Book of Genesis, “That God made us in his own image and likeness”.
People throughout history continued to commit sin and turn their back on God their loving creator.
Despite this, God continued to love us. God wanted to redeem us.
The abundant love God has for us is shown in his Son Jesus’ death on the Cross.
The Cross itself would mean nothing without the Resurrection.
When Jesus rose from the dead, he conquered the cruelty, the jealousy and hatred of those who put Him to death.
The actions of those responsible for the death of Christ on the Cross, represents the sins of all of us.
We have been redeemed from this way of life, the darkness of our lives that we create for ourselves into the light of Christ.
Three days after Christ died on the Cross, the women came to the tomb with spices to anoint the body of Jesus, and to their horror, the body of Jesus was not there; the tomb was empty.
Only after seeing the empty tomb did the women and the three disciples, remember the words of Scripture, “That he must rise from the dead”.
Now they believed Christ has risen from the dead and their belief led to faith in the Risen Christ.
After the Resurrection, the disciples were transformed from the humiliation they felt at seeing Jesus put to death in the most inhuman way, to knowing he has risen and is with them in the ordinary things in their lives.
The night the disciples had supper in the village of Emmaus, or after a nights fishing on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, they knew their friend Christ had risen,
Like the disciples, faith leads to belief that Christ is risen.
Faith raises us above the disappointments of life, faith enables us to live with those things we cannot change.
Faith enables us to be people of hope believing one day we will share life forever with the Risen Christ.
I wish you a happy and blessed Easter. The Lord is Risen, we are changed people.