Easter Day 9 April 2023.
Alleluia! Christ is risen.
My name is Mary – Mary of Magdala;
an ordinary person.
I have a past – as have we all.
When I was healed, I followed Him –
An ordinary follower, not one of the twelve,
But content just to follow, loving Him.
An ordinary follower.
An ordinary person.
So why to Mary Magdalene
was it given to know first that He’s alive?
Why me? Rejoicing, when others, worthier, still mourned?
Because I loved Him?
Or because I cried? – who knows?
But this I do know.
I was in the garden with my tears
And then he rose from death to life, and all that died were tears.
With His living, so was born within my heart
the strength to tell that my Lord lives
and death itself is dead.
And you – what truth is on your lips?
His cross?
– a truth indeed, but lesser truth without the knowledge that He lives.
If they ask you, as they asked me
What is this nonsense?
Answer only this, if true for you, or keep your peace;
I know, for I have seen Him.
Collect for Easter Day
Acts 10: 34-43 John 20: 1-18
Alleluia! He is risen!
In those four words, our Christian faith is proclaimed. Jesus died – and came back to life. If those four words aren’t true, then our faith has no foundation, the Gospel story is mere wishful thinking.
Incarnation – God becoming Human -would have no purpose. Either God sends His Son, once for all time, that through Him we may not perish but have eternal life through His victory over sin and death – or He didn’t. If not, why bother? If Jesus lived just for the few years of His early life and then died, what He achieved wouldn’t be applicable to anyone living later – including us.
Dismissing Jesus as just a teacher of morality? It is all very well to regard Jesus’ words as a moral compass – and they are certainly that! But there are many other human teachers and philosophers who offer humanitarian guidance on the way we should live our lives, but who make no claim to divinity. Jesus said He was God. If not true, outrageous claims of a madman.
How about miracles and healings. Healing the sick, and bringing people back to life. They could easily be dismissed as made up or fanciful. Alternatively, perhaps yes, they did happen, but with a secular explanation misunderstood by people of the time.
Perhaps the worst issue is that if the resurrection accounts in the Gospels aren’t true, then there is no reason to believe every one of the other stories they contain. In fact, probably not.
The only justification for Christian belief is that Jesus did die and was raised from death. The only way that we know that the victory over death is permanently won is if we accept that the tomb is empty. The only reason for joy in the face of suffering is our confidence in Jesus’ promise that just as He is risen and alive, so we can look to eternal life in the Kingdom of Heaven.
Alleluia! He is risen. He is risen indeed. Alleluia!
Previous Posts
Praying Together 10th August 2025
And while we think of the things we value most, do we remember that we are of such value to God, that His Son was prepared to go into the flames for us?
Praying Together 27th July 2025
In a word, it is all prayer, a rich sequence, choreographed in different moments of gathering, praise, listening and communion.
Praying Together 20th July 2025
Jesus comes to us in many ways and with many faces. Are we aware we may ‘entertain Angels without knowing it?
Praying Together 13th July 2025
May we never miss meeting your gaze,
in the eyes of our sibling, the stranger.
Praying Together 6th July 2025
Always remember that ‘success’ is simply doing His will – it’s not necessarily achieving the outcome we would ourselves consider to be ‘successful’. Leave that definition with Him.
Praying Together 29th June 2025
Jesus is looking for commitment. Absolute, unconditional, commitment. When I think of what that means, I’m always minded of Martina Navratilova’s remark: “The difference between involvement and commitment is like ham and eggs. The chicken is involved; the pig is committed.”
Praying Together 22nd June 2025
As Christians, may we never regard mercy and compassion towards others as weakness, naivety or gullibility, but display the traits which demonstrate that we follow a Saviour who came to rescue those left behind.
Praying Together 15th June 2025
You couldn’t fly a kite inside a church building –for the Kite to fly you’d have to go into the windy street outside. Where does that place the need for the Spirit to act?
Praying Together 8 June 2025
Of all the strange things happening on the Day of Pentecost, perhaps the most puzzling is when God appears to have second thoughts. In Genesis 11, He makes it difficult for people to understand each other’s language
Praying Together 1st June 2025
The song by Mary Black, ‘Bless the Road’, while written as from a parent whose child is leaving home alone for the first time – maybe first day at primary school, going to college, beginning an independent life – always puts me in mind of the thoughts and blessing of Jesus as He prays for His disciples before His Ascension.
Praying Together 25th May 2025
‘Peace I give to you… do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not be afraid.’
His peace is not remote and only there at the end of things – His Peace is with us now.
Praying Together 18th May 2025
So the commandment is a challenge. To love those who betray you. Those who jeer. Those who wield the whips embedded with flint, hammer in the nails, pierce your side.