Easter! The greatest invitation!
On social media in the week I saw a quote from Arsene Wenger, the former Arsenal football manager, who said, ‘Christmas is important, but Easter is decisive.’
It would be good to think that he was doing a bit of publicity for the Christian faith, but actually he was talking about results of games – in football the Christmas period is important but the games around Easter, as the season comes to a close, are decisive.
But of course, he could have been talking about the Christian faith and today represents the most important day in the Christian calendar, and a day where we celebrate the world literally being changed forever. The events of the first Christmas were important, but it was the first Easter that was decisive!
And on that first Easter Jesus offered the greatest invitation of all – the invitation to a new life. Today I want to think about that invitation using two images I hope you’ll picture in your mind.
The first goes back to Good Friday. Jesus has gone through the week before with all kinds of things happening – there was Palm Sunday when Jesus was cheered into Jerusalem. There were various events in the week including Jesus’ betrayal by one of his closest followers, there was the mock trial where Jesus was condemned to death, there was Peter, another of Jesus’ closest followers, denying even knowing him, and then at the cross as most of the other followers had gone into hiding, Jesus hung, and he hung there with arms open wide, and the messages he gave were still about love and compassion.
To his mother and John, a disciple, he asked them to care for one another from now on. To the people who had condemned him to death, to those who had mocked him and shouted at him, he prayed, ‘Father forgive them for they don’t know what they’re doing.’ And to one of the criminals dying next to him, who asked that Jesus remember him when he came into his kingdom, Jesus said, Truly I tell you, today, you will be with me in Paradise.’
And the vision I want us to think about there as we think of his words and actions on the cross is that of his open arms, arms reaching out wide to gather in anyone and everyone who would recognise him and accept his invitation to life…
And that is what Peter was talking about as he spoke to the people in our reading from the Acts of the Apostles (10:34-43). Peter, who had denied knowing Jesus after Jesus was arrested, no doubt fearing for his own life, was now boldly speaking up telling people what he had seen from Jesus.
He spoke of how Jesus went about preaching peace, doing good and healing, and how he had been put to death, but on the third day he was raised from the dead and he appeared, and there are a number of accounts in the bible of him speaking to people, eating and drinking with people and encouraging people to go and say what they’d seen and heard so that others might know of his great invitation as well.
And in those accounts, we hear about lives changed. People who were afraid when they saw Jesus arrested suddenly were speaking out passionately and with excitement about new life…
And so, we had those open arms on the cross, arms that were calling people to him, to witness the love that he has for us – the love that even made him willing to be humiliated, tortured and killed, and the love that made him respond only with compassion and more love!
We have the open arms of the cross and the next image I want to think about is the image of the empty tomb. We’re told (Luke 24) that “early in the morning they came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in, they did not find the body.”
The tomb was empty and Jesus was gone, and the next part of the invitation, is surely to follow him from the darkness and despair of the tomb into new life… That is the image I want to think about…
Easter is the great invitation, as the world was changed, so we have the opportunity to be changed. That first image I mentioned to think about was when Jesus opened his arms on the cross, welcoming people to him. He didn’t offer words of condemnation, he didn’t blame people. He just showed compassion, He showed his love and invites us to respond to that love.
And if the cross was the end and the tomb wasn’t empty and Jesus hadn’t risen, then we wouldn’t be in this place celebrating today. We need that second image of the empty tomb and the risen Jesus going and greeting people and still talking about love and compassion and hope, and giving that continued invitation to new life….
An invitation in two parts, but both parts reminding us of God’s power and God’s love. And today, as we celebrate Easter once again, we can rightly shout alleluia because God is here with us… And God understands any of our emotions, and God understands any of the crises that the world has around, and God understands the pain of those who are struggling for whatever reason…
God speaks to us all. God invites us all to new life, to new hope, to the assurance that we are loved without limits or conditions…
Watching the news isn’t the most fun thing to do at the moment. There are so many issues, so much hurt and pain, but today we are again reminded that there is also so much hope, so much love and so powerful an invitation to accept the new life that we are offered day by day…. We may have been following Jesus for many years. We may have been following him for a short time, or we may still be waiting to be convinced and are just thinking things through…
Today is the day that we think of the love of Jesus, the compassion of Jesus and the power that raised him from the dead, along with the hope that, just as the arrest and the torture and the crucifixion represented a period of incredible darkness, so the resurrection represented a great light coming on, a light that shines throughout the world.
We are living in troubling times in lots of ways, perhaps every generation has similar challenges, but for many there are times of darkness, but into the darkness of the lives of those early followers of Jesus, shone an incredible light that has never gone out…
Into the darkness of war and poverty and greed and power grabbing and personal pain and suffering and anxiety about all kinds of things. Into the darkness of addiction and illness and fear, Jesus brings hope.
There will be times of pain and suffering, times of struggle and doubt, but Jesus invites us to a new life with him, and when we accept that invitation, we are accepted for ever, but still, we’re reminded of it day by day…
And day by day, amidst all of our ups and downs, we are invited just to come back, to take time to recognise where God is in the world and in our lives…. Jesus is alive, and he invites us to live our lives into eternity with him…
Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
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