I grew up at a Methodist (then Uniting), church, going twice a week from when I was in utero.
Mum’s slightly old fashioned, 50s, but delightfully evangelical greeting to all us on Easter Day was always “He is risen.”
To which we were meant to reply “He is risen indeed!”
As a teenager I found this quaint and pewky.
But now I love it now!
But what happened on the first Easter Day?
Well, the women burst into the first floor room where the 12 ex-zealots, fishermen, and tax collectors were huddled, mourning the brutal execution-style murder of their beloved leader-
It’s over.
The revolution failed.
The Romans won.
The Pharisees are smirking in their synagogues.
But the women are gasping, wild-eyed, talking about an EMPTY grave, an angel (for goodness sake!) announcing something to them, cand, oh yeah, by the way, Jesus SHOWING UP in their garden!
Soon, the rumors start swirling. People start seeing him. He walks through walls. He eats fish. He’s got wounds, but they don’t seem to slow him down. He keeps saying cryptic things, like how all of this was part of the plan.
This is Not a Drill
Let’s get this out of the way right now:
Jesus’ “coming back to life” is not some quaint, sentimental myth.
It’s not a metaphor, simile, or onomatopoeia.
It’s not C1 Palestine’s version of a Hallmark movie, where everything gets tied up neatly in a Hollywood ending.
No, the resurrection is the most metal, brain-melting, paradigm-shattering event in human history.
Easter is the story of a man who literally stopped being dead.
Not resuscitated.
Not “He was just in a coma.”
Not “swooned then the cold of the brought Him back”.
No.
He was bound in grave clothes (their version of a coffin), buried in a tomb, and sealed up with a boulder the size of a car.
And three days later, He walked out, like nobody’s business.
The early Christians believed SO much in the actual, physical, bodilly resurrection; they bet everything, their lives, on it.
And they weren’t philosophical types sipping extra-hot no-froth decaf skim lattes and debating abstract theology.
They were blue-collar workers in high vis gear, tax cheats, ex-terrorists, and a few wealthy generous women who funded the whole thing.
And then… the now-alive-again Jesus… changed the world through them.
The Glorious Absurdity of Easter
And here’s where things get theologically spicy:
The resurrection of Jesus is the single most disruptive event in history.
Why? Because it rewrites the script of reality.
See, every religion, every philosophy, every human system operates, under a simple assumption: Death wins.
You can fight it, delay it, distract yourself from it, try to ignore it, but at the end of the day, the house always wins.
But Easter says, “Well actually- NO!”
Easter is God’s ultimate mic-drop. It’s His way of saying, “Nice try, entropy. You lose. Not interested.”
It’s the moment where the Creator kicks in the door of the universe, marches into the very heart of death, and steals the keys back.
But it isn’t JUST a victory for Jesus. It’s a victory for us too.
Because, He doesn’t just rise for Himself- He catches us up with Him in coming back to life.
Gives US a new life. Forever.
Easter means that death is now a joke.
It means that rebellion agin God (sin) and shame and guilt don’t get the last word.
It means that despair and depression and darkness have an expiration date.
In short, the resurrection is the biggest plot twist in human history.
And… it turns out that this apocalypse is just the beginning of something better.
I get it—modern people struggle with the idea of resurrection.
It seems a little… excessive?
A bit too dramatic.
A bit too much?
But honestly? That’s kind of the POINT.
Easter is ridiculously extravagant. It’s wildly unnecessary.
It’s God going full maximalist.
He could’ve just saved us in some spiritually metaphorical way-
He could’ve just sent Jesus to be a wise sage who dispensed good advice.
But no- He went ALL IN.
He died, and then He bodily got back up, just to make sure we got the message.
And in a world that’s drowning in cynicism, irony, and existential exhaustion, Easter is the one thing bizarre enough, hopeful enough, true enough, to shatter our defenses.
So… don’t just hunt for eggs, and eat yummy seafood this Easter.
Good grief! I did this at my school today! I was given a free egg by the “Easter Bunny” (which I always find slightly creepy, by the way- he reminds me of “Donnie Darko”.
Let’s embrace the absolute absurdity of a crucified King who just wouldn’t stay dead.
Celebrate the fact that Christianity is, at its core, a resurrection movement.
Because the best news in the history of the world is this:
The grave is empty.
Yep.
And Jesus is alive.
Right now.
Image: Pickpioc.com