Easter

But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking spices they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. (Luke 24:1–3)

What are your most memorable family traditions on Easter? One of my earliest memories was our family’s Easter egg hunt. We would gather at my grandmother’s house armed with our Easter baskets. But honestly, we didn’t hunt eggs; instead, we pursued one legendary egg—the prized $100.00 egg. This one egg was carefully hidden and contained a lifetime of riches in the mind of a six-year-old boy. You can imagine my disappointment when one year my uncle made the pre-Easter Egg hunt announcement that he didn’t hide the “money egg” that year. He assured us that there was still some delicious candy to be found hidden in the rest of the eggs. Years later, I realized that my uncle had grown a bit stingier with his Easter egg money and decided to end the tradition. I’ll never forget what I didn’t find on that Easter egg hunt.

On the original Easter Sunday morning, a group of Jesus’ closest female friends and family came to anoint Jesus’ body with spices and ointments. But if you remember the details of this story, what they didn’t find would be the discovery that would change human history. The stone that guarded the tomb of Jesus was rolled away, and where the body was supposed to be, nothing was found. But what those perplexed women did find were two angels of the Lord who announced to them and in turn to us, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here but has risen.”

Approximately two thousand years later, that first Easter “hunt” for the body of Jesus stands as the central plot of the story of Christianity. What does that first Easter morning mean? An empty tomb ensures the forgiveness of sin for all who believe in Jesus’ finished work. An empty tomb ensures that there is hope beyond the grave. There is no human access to God’s goodness and love without the empty tomb. The truth is that if those first visitors found what they sought, we would have nothing to celebrate this Easter season. But the good news this Easter season is in the story of a hunt that came up empty. So this Easter morning, we join in the words of the great hymn of Charles Wesley, And Can It Be That I Should Gain:

No condemnation now I dread;
Jesus, and all in Him, is mine!
Alive in Him, my living Head,
And clothed in righteousness Divine,
Bold I approach the eternal throne,
And claim the crown, through Christ my own.

LET US PRAY - Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this, you rejoice. (1 Peter 1:3–6a)