Easter: life has the final word

Thanks be to God for the women. Let’s give them their names: Mary Magdalene, Joanna and Mary the mother of James. They were the first witnesses of the resurrection of Jesus. And they were the first to be sent to share this remarkable news with others. The women were the first to see the resurrection of the Son of God from his crucifixion and to speak of it. Because of them, we know that it is true that Jesus rose from the dead.

Jesus Christ had died, as witnessed to by these same women, and by the soldiers who made sure he was dead. He had been buried, and his tomb closed off, to avoid any doubt. But now he was alive, in his body. He had risen from the dead. This was not resuscitation from near death; his rising was not some sort of symbolic metaphor; he did not appear as a ghost. He had arisen from the dead. This we know and can believe in, because of the two Marys and Joanna.

They saw what they saw, and it was enough for them to believe. ‘Why look among the dead for someone who is alive? He is not here; he has risen.’ This is what they then told the others, who hesitated at first on hearing such astonishing news. But they, too, would come to see, and to believe. Jesus Christ, dead on a cross for our sake, is now risen, bearing in his living body the gifts we need, of healing and hope.

When Jesus stood among his disciples after the resurrection, he showed them his crucifying wounds. They were the marks which proved to them what he had done for them. Jesus wanted his disciples to see, with their own eyes, that he had taken their wounded lives into his own body. St Peter, who was there that day, never forgot this. Later he would write, ‘By his wounds, you have been healed.’ (1 Peter 2:24)

In his crucifixion, Christ carried the full weight of our failures, our hurts, the injuries done to us, and the damage we have done to ourselves and others. In his resurrection, he stood before the world with a body bearing those wounds—our wounds—now gloriously healed.

There is a profound hope that springs from the resurrection of Christ. It is something we personally long for, and want for those around us. It is a hope that moves us from darkness to light, as Christ moved from death to life. It is why the resurrection is healing.

The wounds we bear threaten to define us, to entrap us. They try to tell us there is no way ahead; no different future; no hope to look for. But Easter has given to us a different word and a new story: a healing word, a story of new birth. Easter tells us that our wounds are not where the story ends.

The resurrection of Jesus is God’s declaration to us: nothing we carry is beyond his power to redeem. No injury too deep. No past too broken. No heart too far gone. Easter shows us a new dawn, where we can stand in the light of Jesus, present to us in his glorious body. The risen Christ, bearing his crucifying marks, is the gift of healing and the light of hope we need.

This is the promise of Easter, which I want to commend to you of today: it is true that Jesus Christ rose from the dead, and because of that our wounds do not have the final word. Life does. For we have been healed in the crucified and risen Christ, and in his resurrected life we will find our hope.