The Easter morning story of Peter and John running to the empty tomb at the behest of Mary Magdalene, even after two thousand years, retains its unique freshness and atmosphere of wonder. It is a biblical drama which continues both to startle and also to enthral us. What was going through the minds of those two disciples as they hurried to the garden? What, they must have asked themselves, could be the meaning of the empty tomb? The group of those who followed Jesus were still trying to come to terms with the events of Good Friday, and the apparent dashing of all their hopes with his death on the cross. Events had now moved on and taken a further twist with the discovery that the body of their Lord no longer lay in the tomb.
It would be the task of Peter and John, and the other disciples, to proclaim to the world that he who died and was buried was no longer subject to the power of death. Christ had risen! The sadness, the tears and the desolation which had overwhelmed and numbed them gave way to an unspeakable joy which would never know diminishment. The sufferings of his passion and cross could not be the final chapter in the story of Jesus Christ. God the Father would not leave his Son in the stranglehold of evil and death, but in the resurrection raised him to the glory of a new and unending life. And that resurrection of Christ is the pledge and promise of our own eternal destiny, planned for us by God from eternity. Easter speaks to that eternal yearning which God has planted deep within each one of us.
Peter, John and the Magdalene, could hardly have realised it at that moment, but they were standing at the dawn and threshold of a new history where humanity was concerned. Their outlook and religious belief would be transformed beyond what they could have imagined because of Easter Day. The One they had loved so dearly in life was still alive and was now enthroned as the Lord of all history. That first Easter showed up their shortcomings where the Scriptures were concerned. They failed to grasp what their Master had so often referred to throughout his public ministry: that he had to suffer and die, and be raised to life on the third day. Once they had gained some insight into the divine plan, they would commit their thoughts to writing and bequeath to the Church those life-giving documents we know as the New Testament.
The Easter celebration marks the highpoint of the Church’s year and the renewed awareness that her Saviour lives and rules through his rising from the tomb. We bask in the new light of Easter and make our own the unassailable joy of those first disciples on discovering that the Lord was no longer in the tomb but had in truth arisen.
Happy Easter to everyone!
