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Devotional Thoughts for Easter Sunday
by Rev. Fr. Mathew C. Chacko
Gospel Reading: Matthew 28: 1-20
Christ is Risen!
"He is not here; for he is risen!" - St. Matthew 28: 6
"Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace
be with you" John 20: 19
"But now Christ has risen from the dead, and has
become the first fruits of those who have fallen
asleep. For since by man came death, by Man also the
resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even
so in Christ all shall be made alive." 1 Corinthians
15: 20-21
1. The Deathless God identified with us in our
humanity of His own will and took our fate and
punishment of death and dying. Death swallowed the
Deathless One thinking He was another mortal. Entering
into the abode of the dead He in fact, he captured the
author of death and freed all the captives and himself
also. An earthquake marked the hour when Christ laid
down his life, and another earthquake witnessed the
moment when he took it up in triumph. Many of the
saints, who lived and died for the Savior, appeared in
the city when the Savior was resurrected. And the
graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who
slept arose, and came out of the graves after his
resurrection, and went into the Holy City and appeared
unto many. [Matthew 27:52-53] At his Second Coming,
his voice will raise all the faithful departed to be
with him. Immediately after the tribulation of those
days shall the sun be darkened and the moon shall not
give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven
and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken, and
then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in
heaven. And then shall all the tribes of the earth
mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the
clouds of heaven with power and with great glory. And
he shall send his angels with a great sound of a
trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from
the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
[Matthew 24: 29-31]
2. God, who was not subject to death, the author and
giver of life, took upon himself death and identified
with us in our dying. He died to give us life and to
free us from the grip of the last enemy, the death. By
accepting death, he went into the abode of the dead,
freed all its captives, and took them along with Him
to the land of the living. He assumed our nature, he
took our death and by destroying death, He freed us
from the domination and power of death.
3. Through the death and Resurrection of the Lord
Jesus Christ, the power of death and sin has been
broken, and through the grace of God, Eternal life has
been offered to all. The death and Resurrection of
Christ abolished our enslavement to sin, our
separation from the love f God and eternal communion
with him, and any hindrance from obtaining the
fullness of life offered to us by our Creator. “For
God has given us the victory through Jesus Christ our
Lord” 1 Cor. 15:57 [Archbishop Demetrius of America]
"The risen Christ offers not only the gift of peace,
but also himself." [Mark L. Hansen, Presiding
Bishop, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America]
The story of the life, sufferings, death and the
resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth still baffle human
minds, as Jon Meacham in his most recent Newsweek
[2005] article insists. He writes, "For many Church
goers who fill the pews this Holy Week, reenacting the
passion, contemplating the cross and celebrating the
Resurrection, the faith may appear seamless and
monumental, comfortably unchanging from age to age.
" From the Passion to the Resurrection to the nature
of salvation, the basic tenets of Christianity were in
flux from generation to generation as believers
struggled to understand the meaning of Jesus"
mission."
Jon Meacham concludes by saying: "Whatever one
thinks of Christianity, the history of Jesus gave
birth to a new, lasting vision of the origin and
destiny of human life, a vision drawn from the
religions deep roots in Judaism."
As we celebrate Jesus" glorious Resurrection once
again, may we with all the believers around the world,
affirm our loyalty to share his vision by living it
up!
He is Risen, Indeed,
Halleluiah!
See Also:
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