I have seen the Lord

From Helen

Jesus is Alive ! Happy Easter to you all.

I have to say Easter Sunday is one of my favourite Sundays of the year.  In fact I actually prefer Easter to Christmas.  I think this is because of the celebration of God’s love for us shown in the crucifixion and resurrection, but more importantly I think it is because of the build up which has focused our minds on Jesus.

Throughout Lent and Holy Week we have taken a journey of self examination –  probably a tough journey, as we have looked at our relationship with God and with other people and the things that separate us from God. In the last few days we have commemorated the last supper, we have thought about Christ on the cross and we have thought about him in the tomb. Worse still perhaps, we have thought about the sin that put him there – not the sin of the sinless Christ, but our sin. 

Today is a day of joy and excitement. It is our big celebration. In view of it being a day of celebration I have some easter jokes …

Q: Why did the Easter egg hide? 
A: He was a little chicken! 

Q: What do you call ten rabbits marching backwards? 
A: A receding hareline. 

Q: What did the rabbit say to the carrot? 
A: It's been nice gnawing at you.

Anyway, back to Easter I enjoy celebrating Easter so much that I have my own Easter ritual – which doesn’t involve me eating all the chocolate – although ?Anyway, I listen to a particular piece of spiritually uplifting music for Easter.  I listen to the song, “He’s alive” by none other than Dolly Parton ! It is a brilliant song and not just because of Dolly Parton but because of the words which include … ““He’s risen and we’re forgiven, His arms are open wide. He’s alive”.

The whole song is about celebration, the song talks of the excitement and surprise for the first disciples as they realised that Jesus was in fact Alive!

Celebration, such an important part of Easter and excitement another important part of Easter.

I remember once being put right on easter by a little girl.  She explained that at Easter the Easter bunny comes and he brings chocolate and sweets, but she pointed out whilst it is good that the Easter bunny brought these gifts they were not as important as other parts of Easter.  Because, she said the chocolate and sweets were for after Church and not before.  She went further to say that Easter is about being happy that even though Jesus had died He was now alive, and so we eat chocolates and sweets to celebrate that Jesus is alive.

I really liked her way of looking at Easter, she realised the most important thing, and she had an interesting perspective on the use of chocolate and sweets. It was good.

She understood that at Easter we celebrate. You see without Easter, there would be no Christianity because people would not have kept following and worshipping a man, whom to all intents and purposes would seem to be as a fraud if He had not risen.

Jesus is Alive, it is time to celebrate. 

If Jesus hadn’t risen from the dead He would not have been able to prove that He was who He said He was. By the resurrection Jesus proved that He was for real. He was God and He would never leave us. Because of the resurrection we can have hope now and in the time to come. 

The first disciples had been through the mill. They had followed Jesus, believed in Him, trusted in Him. They had seen Him perform amazing miracles and they had seen Him love people. They had heard His words, they knew He was beyond everything they could ever have dreamt of. But then they saw Him arrested, they saw Him crucified, they had been through it all. Then they went to see Jesus in the tomb and He wasn’t there. (John 20:1-18)

That must have been an absolutely horrible feeling, they must have been confused. It says in the gospel that they went back to their homes. To be honest I wonder if they ran back in fear, or if they had their heads down in sorrow and confusion. Whatever happened it was what happened next when Mary saw Jesus that confirmed things.

At first Mary didn’t recognise Jesus. This may seem really silly to us. After all Mary had been one of Jesus’ followers but she was in a state. She was crying, she wasn’t sure what had happened except she assumed that someone had stolen Jesus’ body. But Jesus reached out to her and she knew who He was. 

Why did Jesus not want Mary to hang onto Him? Well, perhaps He wanted her to go as quickly as possible and share the news. Jesus had something new to do and He wanted His disciples to share with Him. There wasn’t time. Mary had a job to do and that job began with the most amazing of lines ever.. “I have seen the Lord.’ 

We are here today worshipping God, because we have seen the Lord. We have come to know Him in our lives.  Jesus is alive and that is the best news ever. We have hope because Jesus died and rose again.

Jesus’ resurrection brought a new beginning for His followers. They now knew that Jesus hadn’t left them and they had a job to do which Mary began but as time went on they would all be able to do. They were to say, ‘I have seen the Lord.’

We need to look to Jesus and show to others that He is in our lives by the way that we live. So that when people look at us they will be able to see something of Jesus so that they can say, ‘I have seen the Lord.’

Jesus is alive and that is the best news ever and we have a job to do and that is to show people Jesus. 

Easter is the time when the incredible happens, it is the time when we can see how great and powerful God is. 

May we rejoice and give thanks, that Christ is risen, He is risen indeed Alleluia ! AMEN