Easter

I don’t know what about you but for me this is one of the weirdest Easter celebrations I ever experienced in my life with everyone on lock down, social distancing, restaurants close and children who cannot visit their grandparents. And even more as a clergy with most of all Churches that are closes and the Easter celebrations have a different character.  Yes, we cannot gather in churches but remember that the first Christians didn’t either. They gathered in houses because public worship was not allowed for them.
 
In the light of all of that you might get depressed but actually all of this is what Easter is all about. Just remember the disciples of Jesus were on lockdown.  Most of them hid themselves behind closed doors our of “fear for the Jews”. They were locked in that upper room where they had the Last Supper and where Jesus later would appear to them. They were on lockdown, fearful and hid themselves. There were a few exceptions like the women and Thomas. Where was Thomas: “was he getting groceries at a locked down marketplace” and then quickly get behind closed doors again?
 
We are also hiding behind closes doors out of fear for that invisible enemy: Covid 19 or the Corona virus. But we know the light for the disciples was about to break through. Just back in the days when God saved his people out of the darkness of slavery to freedom, God was about to do his miracle again. He was about to break the chains of death and evil into glorious new life for all of us. Nothing is too big for God to conquer. So let us not be fearful but courageous in the light of everything that is happening. For we can be confident that He will bring an end to this crisis we are in as well. “What the devil meant for evil, God will use for good”. We only have to put our confidence and faith in God. We just need to trust him...and not in "human princes from whom comes no salvation", as the Bible tells us. 
 
When we look at the Easter story there is so many things that are magnificent about. One of the magnificent things is that it shows the courage and strength of the women. It are not the men who act macho and strong that shows real courage….it are the women. Mary Magdalene finds the empty tomb and runs to the apostles to tell them her astonishing news. It is only in St John’s Gospel we hear that the tomb was empty. But the women were not giving any guidance about the meaning of that all. When Peter and the beloved disciple went to the grave the meaning became clear: Jesus has been risen from the dead! The Easter message is truly great news and is timeless. More than ever we need to hear it now as we walk in dark times. We can identify with the story and the persons in the Gospel. We are called just like Mary Magdalene to, share with others, the news of the resurrection? And with Peter and John we find out how Jesus can enlighten our lives.
 
When we dig deeper we experience the Easter mystery and the wonder that the women and the disciples must have experienced. It is the timeless message that God is “the God of the living and not from the death”.  It is the message that God does not forget or forsake us. The darkest hour is just before dawn, the time that the women went to the grave. And they were in for the biggest surprise of their life. They were talking among themselves who would roll away the stone from the grave. But no worries God took care of that already. On Easter morning, the stone was rolled away. God can again roll away the stony from the grave. From the grave of darkness in our hearts, in our lives, in our society. He can take away the darkness of “Covid 19” if we just put our trust above everything. When we turn the grave just before sunrise we find the tomb empty and the angels sitting inside with a message for us as well: “He is not here, He is Risen as he has said”. In the spirit of the Risen Lord I wish you all a Happy Easter! Amen!