Christ is Risen. He is Risen indeed!
We have done our worst. He’s seen the very worst we are capable of, from brutal violence, deceit, betrayal, mockery, right down to the sheer indifference and apathy that makes it all possible… because we did them all to Him. In reading the Passion twice this week, in praying the Stations of the Cross all through Lent, in the liturgy of Good Friday, we allow all this to soak in. We take time to remember the darkness, to force ourselves to face the horror of what happened that Friday afternoon. And we do this… why? To wallow in guilt? No. We do this because the victory of Easter flows out of it. Easter is only Easter because of Good Friday.
See, this isn’t about the kind of victory that just gains some ground, or rights some wrongs, or makes things a little better somehow. What was conquered on Easter Morn? Good Friday is the answer to that question. Here’s the bottom line, here’s what it all boils down to: things got as bad as they could possibly get, we sinned as outrageously as ever we could sin, darkness covered everything and hope flickered out in the face of darkness, evil and darkness and death had their moment of total victory, and it’s okay.
Many Christians have pointed out that there’s almost a joke to it. The enemy got everything he ever wanted, took his best shot, landed his heaviest blow… I mean, he really thought he’d won. That’s the joke of it. He had God buried in a tomb. But there was a deeper magic at work, something evil just didn’t get, something the darkness couldn’t comprehend. It’s beautifully put in the sixth-century hymn:
Eating of the tree forbidden,
man had sunk in Satan's snare,
when our pitying Creator
did this second tree prepare;
destined, many ages later,
that first evil to repair.
Such the order God appointed
when for sin He would atone;
to the serpent thus opposing
schemes yet deeper than his own;
thence the remedy procuring,
whence the fatal wound had come.
But it isn’t just a joke, and it isn’t just an irony. It’s a victory; it’s the victory. If Christ is risen, then it’s sort of the only thing that matters. The darkness won’t win. It can’t. All that’s left is love and mercy. That’s it. We are gossips, killers, adulterers and hypocrites. We are liars, thieves, gluttons and Pharisees, and we just can’t exhaust his mercy. That’s just the point: we hung him on a cross, we buried him in a tomb, and he just came back to us, and when he did, what he had to say was “Peace be with you.” The message here is that sin and evil are utterly powerless.
And if that’s true, then there is nothing, ever, to fear. The Cross is real, and you will share it. But love is more real. And in the end, even what you’ve suffered will be part of this victory.The scars of the Risen Christ are part of his glory.
All that’s left now is to believe. Believe this, and your weaknesses and shortcomings cease to matter. Believe this, and no matter how dark things seem, you’ll always be able to see the light. Believe this, and death itself becomes nothing more than a doorway to your true home. And the people you miss so much are still with you, now and forever.
For much of our history, when Christians met in the time of Easter, this is the greeting they would exchange: the first would exclaim “Christ is Risen!” and the other would respond “He is Risen indeed!” They knew that that said it all. Christ is Risen, and that is the one thing that matters. If Christ is Risen, then darkness can never win, and hope can never die, and love can never flag or fail. And no one is alone, and no one is unloved, not anyone, not ever.
Christ is Risen!
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