5 April 2026 Easter Day

Acts 10.34-43   The Hymn to the Risen Christ   Colossians 3.1-4   Matthew 28.1-10

It is interesting, I think, that all 4 of the gospels tell the story of the day of resurrection differently.  Some talk about confusion, disbelief, wonder, but for Matthew, his primary theme is triumph – power unleashed.  He starts with an earthquake, reminiscent of the one three days ago when Jesus died and the curtain in the temple was torn, but this one has an accompanying angel.  While, in the other three gospels, I think, the stone is already moved from the tomb, Matthew has this angel moving it after the earthquake.  And the earthquake occurs as the women arrive at the tomb and, it is powerful enough that the guards either faint or ‘become rigid’ as the angel arrives.  And the angel is the first to speak – ‘fear not. I know you are looking for Jesus, but he is not here’.  Then the invitation to see for themselves; ‘come and see where he was then go and tell everyone you will see him in Galilee, just as he told you’.

This theme of ‘fear not’, is a common one in our gospels.  And when, filled with fear and joy, the women do as the angel instructed them and run to tell everyone, they meet Jesus on the way and he too tells them, ‘fear not’.

I wonder, are we able to ‘fear not’.  With all that is going on in the world, can we ‘fear not’ and trust that God has it all in hand.  It is a big call.  But it was a big call then too.  Our lives are often a mixture of fear and joy.  Fear of an unknown future, joy at the present we have now.  Fear and joy; doubt and faith; despair and hope; these are the sides of the coin that presents as our lives in this world.  But the resurrection promise of joy, hope, and faith, will ultimately overcome the negatives.  The resurrection changed everything, it has created the possibility for joy, and hope, and courage, and so much more.  Because of the resurrection we have the promise that life is stronger than death, that love is greater than hate, that mercy overcomes judgement, and that all the sufferings and difficulties of this life are transient – they are still real and palpable and sometimes painful, - but they do not have the last word and they do not represent the final reality.

At the funeral service for Winston Churchill, which he arranged himself, a single trumpeter stood at the west end of St Paul’s Abby and sounded “Taps”, the song that signals dusk and the close of another day.  But after a moment of stillness that followed the last plaintive note of the song, another trumpeter stood at the east end of the Abby, the end that faced the rising sun, and played “Reveille”, the song of the morning and the call to a new day.  Churchill perceived that Christ’s resurrection signals, above and beyond everything else, that our God is a God of new life and never-ending possibility.

The good news of Christ’s resurrection does not take away our fear, even if we desperately would like it to, but it does offer us courage and hope by grounding us in the sure promise that God will have the last word, and that that word is one of light and life and grace and mercy and love and peace.