Easter means Rejoice! Jesus is alive!

Wednesday, April 24. 2019

Easter means Rejoice! Jesus is alive!

                After the cruel agonizing death that Jesus endured on the cross

there is much to celebrate and give praise to God for as we celebrate Christ’s resurrection! He is alive!

                This past week one of our ladies distributed jelly beans of various colours in Ziploc bags. The prayer she included with the jelly beans expresses the joy and thankfulness we should be sharing about Christ’s gift of new life.

Red is for the blood He gave Green is for the grass He made

Yellow is for the sun so bright Orange is for the edge of night

Black is for the sins we made White is for the grace He gave

Purple is for His hours of sorrow Pink is for our new tomorrow

A bagful of jelly beans colourful and sweet; is a prayer, is a promise is an Easter Treat!

               

                These jelly beans share the message of God’s creation- from grass, to sunshine, sunset and then introduces Christ’s passion story of love – from the sins and God’s grace given to Jesus’ suffering and hope for salvation.

                What does Easter mean for you? As we enter into this season of rejoicing that Jesus is alive do you believe in the resurrection of Jesus? For if we do then this is the beginning of Christian faith. It is the hope we have that when we leave this earthly life we will not die but our spirits will live forever in God’s promised home.

                Jesus died an awful death; his burial was according to tradition and filled with love from the women who tended to his needs and to the man who gave his tomb so that Jesus could rest in peace. But death could not hold him. He rose from death to live again. And so when the women went to grieve at his tomb and anoint his body there was no need for this. Angels told them he was alive. Another account has Jesus speaking to Mary and calling her by name. She knew and believed. And so others soon learned of the resurrection from death.

                And this story of a man who preached in the countryside, was crucified and buried and who rose again has been told for many generations and in many ways. However we understand the story and however we see Jesus dying on the cross, we must remember that the light of life shone into that tomb and Jesus got up. He left some of the linens there and went out of the tomb.

                Today we believe: Christ has died, Christ is risen and Christ will come again. Just how do you share Jesus’ story? And are you willing to do so in faith?

PRAYER

God of grace and love we praise you for raising Christ Jesus to live again and that by his death and resurrection we may receive the gift and promise of eternal life. Bless us we pray as we yearn to know him and to see him for ourselves. Help us to see him wherever we go and whatever we do for by faith we have become his hands and feet and are called to tell his story. Praise be to you O Christ. Amen.