On Good Friday, it looked like the powers of evil and darkness had won. Jesus, who had spent the past three years forgiving sins and healing the sick, who preached that loving God and our neighbor was more important than following religious rules, and who proclaimed the reign of God and reconciliation, this Jesus was arrested, shamed, beaten, whipped, and finally executed through crucifixion by the religious and political authorities. One of his followers betrayed him, the rest abandoned him.
On Holy Saturday, his broken corpse lay in a tomb. Dead. His followers huddled in a room, terrified that they’d be next. They had believed that Jesus was the Messiah, who would throw the Romans out and establish an earthly reign. They hoped to rule with him, but their hopes were dashed. Everything seemed hopeless.
On the third day, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to the tomb to finish the burial preparations that they had started on Good Friday. Suddenly, there was a great earthquake, an angel appeared, rolled away the stone in front of the tomb and sat on it. The Roman guard just stood there, shaking. The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay.” Then, as they were hurrying to tell the disciples, they saw Jesus himself. He had indeed risen from the dead!
The powers of evil and darkness – what the Bible often calls “the world” – threw everything they had at him. They lost, God won. Jesus faced death, the most fearsome weapon in the arsenal of evil, and he conquered it. He says, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live.” And so we can say with Paul, “Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”
Death is still terrible, but it does not have the last word. As Jesus told the thief on the cross, “Today you will be with me in paradise.” And someday, in God’s good time, Jesus will extend his reign to fully rule the earth, which we Christians call his “second coming”. Then, as Isaiah says, “The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them… They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.”
In the meantime, evil is still with us and people still suffer and die. Free will and the forces of nature still take their toll, and our mission of growth – spiritual, moral, intellectual – in the face of challenge and tragedy continues. We are still charged with making the world better. But we know that our victory has already been won, and even though we die, we shall live.
Have a happy and blessed Easter. Jesus is risen and has overcome the world. And with him, we have done so as well. Allelujah!