Easter Sunday

As the dust settles, as the light rises, as the people awake, this morning is different than any other morning. Normally when we wake up, we rise from sleep, from a state that does not persist. We are not meant to be asleep forever. But there is one who rises this morning who is not supposed to rise, not supposed to be awake at this hour. For death is supposed to be a persistent state, one that does not end, in fact, one that is the end for us all. Yet He is risen, and He will not enter that state ever again.

The prophet Isaiah proclaimed that one would come along who would become the suffering servant of the Lord, one who would “cast death down headlong for ever” (Is 25:8). Saint Paul would proclaim a few decades after this day, “O Death, where is your victory? O Death, where is your sting?” (1 Cor 15:55). For indeed, on this day Death is cast down, humbled in the face of the One who once died but now will die no more. Death has no claim over Him, but He has one claim over Death: victory.

He whom John the Baptist called the Lamb of God has been immolated upon the altar of the Cross. He whom Pilate cursed at when he mockingly asked, “What is truth?”, now stands outside the sepulcher as the complete Truth revealed by God. He whom the priests shamed as being incapable of saving Himself now towers over every enemy of God and man as the one who has saved all. He is the Paschal victim, the innocent lamb whose blood reconciles sinners to the Father, as that beautiful sequence proclaimed.

What more is there to say on this Easter day? Jesus Christ is risen, risen from death, from the bowels of Sheol, from Hell itself as we say in the Apostles’ Creed. He stands over Satan, over sin, and over death as the Victor. The bonds of slavery are broken; we are set free so that we may enter into the eternal Promised Land of God. Yet this victory, while already accomplished in Christ, is not yet completed in us.

Jesus Christ has brought about a new creation, but the former is still around us. And like bad yeast which corrupts the loaf, we too can be corrupted by this world of sin and death, returning to our former ways, losing that Promised Land forever. We are all free creatures; the eternal choice stands before us: Jesus and life, or sin and death. The struggle is real, but the victory is also real.

Rejoice, brethren, for this day is the day which the Lord has made! Rejoice, because Christ our light rises in the east! Let us turn and greet Him with the sacrifice of praise, turned together towards the risen Son. Cast off the shackles of sin and be free in Christ Jesus the Lord. Become the new dough that rises in this hungry world, the bread of sincerity and truth. Proclaim by your lives that you feast on the Paschal Lamb, that you are sustained by the meat of the Eucharist, and become what you receive. Be glad, brethren, for Jesus has won the victory. Let us follow Him so as to receive the reward of that victory, the fruits of his labor and ours: the eternal victory feast of Heaven.