Momentous LIFE or Death

                I wonder which you think is more powerful life or death. Your answer to that question probably reveals a lot about your personality; optimist or pessimist, jar half full or half empty!  Before you tie yourselves in knots thinking there maybe a definitive answer, we can all agree that both life and its absence are powerful and mysterious.

                The Easter story is precisely about these mysteries and is certainly powerful.  It is fitting that we celebrate in spring when life seems to burst forth from barren ground. At this time of year life seems to conquer death and Easter is no exception. Few would doubt that a man known as Jesus was crucified, dead and buried. The fact that many believe he conquered death and arose to life seems incredulous. Death is death, by ‘nature’ it is the end, we may argue. However when we look a little closer at nature it is not so unreasonable for most endings are really simply new beginnings. The end of a sunset is the beginning of the night, a flower that falls to the ground, is the beginning of the nutrients that are needed to give new life to another flower. 

                Death itself has been fairly well understood for centuries. The people who watched Jesus crucified were no more likely than you or I to expect that he would arise. If you are aware of Monty Python’s dead parrot sketch you must understand that 1^st Century Palestinians would also have known a dead parrot when they saw one!  I however am among those who believe that in this particular death, death itself was mortally wounded. Paul expresses this when he writes:

 ‘Death is swallowed up in victory.
                O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?

If Paul is correct the answer to the conundrum with which we begun is simple. Life must be more powerful, for the greater swallows the lesser. So life is more powerful than death….. In Jesus at very least!

                I think the meaning of Easter must come down to this question. If the resurrection of Jesus is real then the power of life, particularly life connected to Jesus Christ is unstoppable.  Again as Paul wrote, ‘nothing not even death can separate us.’ Of course death still remains powerful; all sorts of separations that we experience are real, and especially so if we practically keep ourselves away from God. The ‘glass’ maybe more than half full, it may actually be overflowing and can never run dry. However you and I will remain thirsty if we do not drink it! Easter states that Life is stronger than death, hallelujah, God has done this. It is still though for us to grasp this life, each and every day and to live it and to enjoy it to the full.

Happy Easter everyday

Stephen