Easter Sunday starts in the inky cauldron of the night. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, the black velvet swatch of sky with its tiny seed pearl stars disappears. Tendrils of pink and orange light peek through the celestial canopy, the colour blazing against the vanishing remnants of the darkling hours.
Sleeping hills and dreaming seas and softly snoring children are beckoned into wakefulness by the auroral glow.
The nocturnal fears of strange noises and swollen shapes and silent shadows slip away in the mist. Spectral fancies and silhouettes no longer play hide and seek. Light softens the world into proper shades and shapes, gently grazing the landscape of the ordinary and the known.
The welcome breath of another diurnal round is written into the infinite almanac of days.
DARK PALL
But, for the followers of Jesus, the shattering horror of that Friday crucifixion is a dark pall crowding out the light and hope of a new day. They wait for a sign that he has not abandoned them as he was abandoned. Their dark night of the soul, its desolation and unmooring from all that is certain and true, all that was promised, flays their hearts. They wait in vigil for what they know not. They are bereft, anguished. Words are few as their world is dimmed beyond recognition.
They cast their minds back to the tumultuous week just past: the chorus of hosannas as Jesus rode into Jerusalem; the Last Supper; the betrayal by Judas; the denial by Peter; the vacillating crowd who chose Barabbas over Jesus for release from prison; those religious elders who sought Jesus’ execution because his teaching threatened their position and privilege; the disciples fearful and frozen; Mary, the devoted mother of her son, and the women who stand staunchly at the foot of the cross, their faith steadfast even unto death.
The evangelist Luke tells us that very early the next morning the women who followed him went to the tomb but found no body. Bedazzling angels reminded them of his promise to rise again on the third day. The words ‘He is risen’ are spoken, their utterance a triumph over darkness and death.
CENTRAL BELIEF
The Resurrection is the light of salvation overcoming the darkness of sin. For Christians around the world, it is central to belief, the whole point of faith in the Son of God who suffered as a mortal man but rose in divine destiny in fulfillment of the scriptures. Before Jesus ascends into heaven, he appears to those he loves.
The first to see him is Mary Magdalene. On the road to Emmaus, two followers feel a burning in their hearts as the stranger explains the scriptures, Later, they rapturously recognise Jesus in the breaking of bread. He appears to the disciples and tells Peter to feed my sheep. Between the Ascension and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost there is an anxious 10-day wait, and Matthias takes the place of the deceased Judas Iscariot. In Acts, Luke tells us of the great rush of air and tongues of fire and the babble of understanding that erupts and energises the disciples as they wait in an upper room in Jerusalem.
NEW DAWN
Small birds sang that first Easter Sunday morning; a sparrow-sparky canticle of chirps and chortling. The new dawn scooped the remains of night away and changed the course of history.
German Lutheran pastor, neo-orthodox theologian and anti-Nazi dissident Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, ‘To live in the light of the Resurrection, that is what Easter means’. Easter provides us with a new canvas on which to script the meaning of our days. We experience the joy of knowing that we rise, alive to the light, with the Son.
Alleluia!
Ann Rennie is a Melbourne writer, teacher and former REC. She believes in the Good News and the power of words to change the world.