Written by Rev. Richard A. Anderson, Chaplain

The forty days of the Lenten Season is quickly drawing to a close. The gospel lessons have reminded us of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness, Jesus meeting Nicodemus at midnight, Jesus and the encounter with the Samaritan women at the well, and Jesus healing of the man who was born blind. All of these gospel events demonstrate how people’s lives were changed as they met Jesus in what we might consider everyday circumstances. What more could possibly happen to mankind to bring us to receive the gift of faith?

As Christians we know, in faith, that Jesus’ crucifixion was not the end of the story for him and for us. We know, in faith that Jesus died for our sins on the cross; that is, God sent his son to break the wall of separation between a holy God and a sinful man. Jesus’ sacrificial act of love absorbed the power of evil that we cannot overcome by our own reason or strength. The penultimate act of God was that death – the grave – could not hold his son. The women who came to the tomb on that first Easter morning found the stone rolled away and two white-clad figures in the empty tomb. Mary Magdalene remained and saw the risen Jesus who instructed her to announce his resurrection to his disciples.

Jesus’ resurrection – his victory over death and the grave – is also our resurrection. In him we have new life now and for all eternity.

Have a Blessed Easter.