Across the Pastor’s Desk by Don Rose

The women, among them Mary Magdalene, went to the tomb that first Easter morning expecting to find a body to be anointed as was the custom of the day for burial. Despite Jesus’ own words to the contrary, even his closest followers were convinced that death and the powers and the forces of this worlds had had the last word. They believed that death had won the victory.

Yet, according to the writer of the Gospel of Mark, when the women arrived at the tomb they found the stone that had sealed it had been rolled away. In the tomb, they saw a young man who told them that the one who had been crucified was now raised and that he was not there, In fact they are told that Jesus is going ahead of them to Galilee and into the future.

This is the promise of the Easter message. The one who was put to death has been raised and goes before us always. Jesus promises to be with us wherever we find ourselves. He does not tag along and bring up the rear. Rather, wherever it is that life takes God’s children there Jesus already is. Jesus cannot be captured or confined. Jesus is not limited to time and space. Jesus has broken free from the bonds of death and shares life now and always with the children of God.

The good news of Easter is not just a message for a single day. Even the 50-day season of Easter is not enough to contain it. The message of Easter is a message for every day of life. Not just in the extraordinary events of life, but also in the everyday mundane things, Jesus is present to strengthen and sustain the weary with a word of hope and promise, a word of victory over sin and death and anything that might hold God’s children in captivity.

Easter is a celebration of the fullness of life offered through Christ for the sake of the whole of God’s creation. The Easter message means new opportunities to live as God’s children even in a world that continues to be broken with sin. The message is a message of hope for all, the hope of a new day, of new life everyday. May the Spirit open the eyes of the faithful to that Easter message each and everyday, not just on Easter Sunday.

Don Rose is a pastor at United and Mansfield Lutheran Churches in Walters and Alden.