This morning the children will be hunting for Easter Eggs at 10:30 am, and as we do that we’ll begin the turn of leaning into the joy, surprise, and glory of Resurrection Sunday. You can view the Order of Worship in preparation for tomorrow.

A lot of disparaging talk is made of Easter as a pagan ceremony commandeered by Christians. Granted, may philosophies and religions speak of  an afterlife. That our existence did not end at our physical death, was really nothing new, almost every people group has a belief in the afterlife. What makes Christians different, is that Jesus Christ’s resurrection points to the hope of a life after ‘life after life’. The Lordship of Jesus Christ, as validated by his physical resurrection from the dead, vindicates his sacrifice on the cross, and as Paul echoes the prophets, “Death is swallowed up in victory.” The same is true for culture. Jesus’ resurrection swallows up all of the old stories. We have hints of the truth of new creation in many legends and traditions, but they were always recognized as just that: legends and traditions. But in Christianity and particularly in Jesus Christ, we have the legend that is true.

There really was and is a Great King who came to his kingdom like one of his subjects and after living a life that his subjects should’ve lived and dying in their place, He won their deliverance from judgment and condemnation and despair and death. And today he reigns and calls all to the deliverance that only he can provide, because on that first day of the week two millenia ago, he awoke.