Easter stands at the heart of our faith. It is at Easter that we hear the happy ending to the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus. It is the good news that Jesus has overcome death and sin, and that Jesus lives! Without the resurrection all of our beliefs would be in vain. The cross would make no sense without the resurrection.

Christ’s emergence from the tomb has importance to us for three major reasons.

First, it is God’s endorsement of everything Jesus claimed and taught. His life ends in victory, not defeat. He was not destroyed by cynics, or political manipulation, or military power. In Jesus’ resurrection, God has the final word.

Second, this event is the cause of our salvation. Paul tells us that if Christ did not rise, then we are still deep in sin. But Jesus did rise. Jesus did conquer death. Jesus did conquer sin. It is the risen Christ that gives us the Holy Spirit, our sanctifier. The “firstborn of the dead” gives assurance to all of us that we are called to a similar destiny.

Third, it is the risen Christ that represents the starting point of Christian faith. It is the prism through which everything in His earthly ministry is now viewed. The Risen Christ is read into the events that preceded his death. Jesus of Nazareth, the Jewish rabbi instructing his disciples, is truly God’s Son and our Lord. Easter stands at the heart of our faith.

Easter is the day of all days to begin to experience the Resurrection power of God, as it wells up from the deepest center of our beings – to “feel and experience healing,” right at those points where we need it the most.

He lives! By his blood, poured out in loving sacrifice on the cross, Jesus has conquered sin and death. He lives, and we, who have been washed clean, and are made free by his blood – we also live.

In the gospel of John, he tells us that, “When Mary of Magdala came to the tomb, she saw that the stone had been moved.” And, running to Simon Peter and the other disciples she said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb and we don’t know where they have put him.” But we know. We know that the Spirit of the Risen Christ is deep within each one of us. Yes, Jesus lives. He lives in us, and that is the Good News of Easter.

Fr. Al Backmann