April 5, 2026: The Resurrection of the Lord

As the women returned on the third day, the Earth quaked again. Now, in place of a sealed tomb, they saw an angel sweep in, roll away the stone and sit atop it. As the guards shook like the trembling Earth, the angel answered the question the dumbfounded women could find no voice to ask: "Do not be afraid, he has been raised. Go now! Tell the disciples to go to Galilee where you will all see him."

Like Joseph before Jesus' birth, they obeyed the angelic command and set off in wonder-filled confusion. Before they could reach the others, Jesus came to them. As they fell at his feet, clinging to him like a child to a father's leg, he repeated everything the angel had said and repeated their commission as the first apostles of his resurrection. Jesus missioned them to send the disciples on the 100-mile journey to Galilee where he would meet them. 

Going to Galilee implied starting again. There they had been called and began their discipleship. It was their starting place. 

By obeying the women who had seen the risen Lord, the disciples who had been terrified into flight and betrayed Jesus could start again. Now, they began to realize that Jesus' death was anything but the end of his story. Living into that new understanding, Peter could preach Jesus' Gospel instead of his own version of messianism. 

Peter reinterpreted what people already knew about Jesus. God had anointed him with the Spirit and power. God had raised him up, vanquishing the powers of death. Peter announced the forgiveness of sin, the good news that divine love absorbs and transforms evil, drawing everything into the unfathomable life of God.

That's what Paul meant by saying that we've passed with Christ from death to life. No longer can we say, "It is what it is." Christ draws us into his own life: loving without end. As Mary sang, "This was unexpected."

We probably resemble Mary and friends more than we think. We profess the Resurrection in our creed. We hope for a good afterlife. But the question remains: Does our day-to-day reflect the fact that our real life, as Paul says, is "hidden in Christ"? Are we living the power of Christ's resurrection?

This mystery is too much for us to comprehend. Sometimes, like the women, we cling to the Jesus we know. Then he says, "There's more. Move on." 

The news of the Resurrection sends us back to our own Galilees, the moments and places where we were touched by Christ, the times when the God of creation overwhelmed us with beauty such that all we could do was give thanks for the senses of sight, touch, taste, smell and hearing. These are the moments when we experience the Spirit of God with and in us. They are but a hint of what can be and is even now happening. 

Resurrection faith keeps returning us to the best we've known. It prods us to allow the Spirit to reveal unexpected dimensions of what is, was, and is to come. On this Easter morn, let us heed the command to start again, to reinterpret everything in our own lives and all of history in the light of Christ's definitive victory over evil. 

We can start again — and again. It will never be the same because our lives, still hidden in Christ, are unfolding under the influence of the Spirit. Time and again, we will ask, "What do I do now?" 

Jesus continues to respond, "Do not be afraid, return to your Galilee and there you will see me — again and again."