鈥淗e is Risen 鈥 He is Risen Indeed.鈥
We鈥檝e heard it and sung it. Declared it across sunlit sanctuaries and whispered it through tears in hospital rooms.
But what does it mean to live like itsa国际传媒 true?
C.S. Lewis once called it The Strangest Story of All, and no wonder. The Easter story is not a tale of heroes and monsters. Itsa国际传媒 a story of ordinary people immersed in something they didn鈥檛 fully understand.
A Roman governor worried about optics. A high priest calculating threats. Soldiers doing their job. A carpenter down the road, shaping wood into a cross, unaware of what鈥攐r who鈥攊t would carry.
Thatsa国际传媒 what makes it so unsettling: we recognize ourselves in the crowd鈥攊n the ones who walked away, the ones who watched, the ones who washed their hands. It wasn鈥檛 evil villains who crucified Christ. It was people with dinner waiting at home 鈥 people like us.
But Easter doesn鈥檛 stop at unsettling. The good news is that Jesus walked straight into that darkness 鈥 and didn鈥檛 flinch. The cross wasn鈥檛 an accident. It was a collision. Grace crashing into guilt. Love meeting every shadow we hide from. The cross dealt with the darkness. Because if I don鈥檛 face it 鈥 it will face me.
Some have said life feels most like Holy Saturday: quiet, in-between, uncertain. And there are days that hit like Good Friday 鈥攔aw, gutting, cruel.
But Easter Sunday?
You only need one to rewrite the rest. One empty tomb. One risen body. One moment that splits the story in two.
Jesus didn鈥檛 escape the void; He endured it. He didn鈥檛 fast-forward to a happy ending; he waited and trusted until the third day, the day that changed history forever. And now, we鈥檙e invited into that same story.
In the Gospel of John, we read: 鈥淓arly on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb...鈥 You can feel the heaviness in her steps, the raw ache in her soul. But then, the stone is gone. She runs. They run.
Thatsa国际传媒 the moment Eug猫ne Burnand captured in his breathtaking painting The Disciples. John and Peter sprinted toward the unknown, fear, hope, and disbelief tangled in their expressions.
Mike Frost once wrote that this is the posture we should all take into Easter: leaning in, breathless, clutching our chests, desperate for it to be true.
Because it is true, and if it is, then nothing is the same.
鈥淭hey bent over. They saw the linen. They entered. They believed鈥 (John 20:3鈥8). Thatsa国际传媒 not just a historical report鈥攊tsa国际传媒 an invitation. To peer into the tomb. To see what they saw. To believe what they believed. Not once, but again and again, with every heartbeat.
On this Resurrection Sunday, the story runs toward us鈥攏ot a gentle walk but a sprint, a gasp, a rush of light into the darkness.
The question is, will we run, too?
Phil Collins is pastor at Willow Park Church in sa国际传媒.
