Risen Indeed!

 March 31, 2024

“Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed!” This ancient Easter greeting and response still reverberates in churches and among Christians all around the world. These words, shouted joyously with the claim that death has been conquered, is the foundation for the hope to which we cling in a fallen and desperate world. 

Many who utter these words do so through tears of grief and loss. They hope for this promise of resurrection, but the wound is still too raw for them to truly grasp it. Then there are those (I believe that most of us, even the most ardent of Christians), who struggle to understand the magnitude of these simple words. We in the Western world have grown up immersed in a culture that reaches into the future with confident assurance that life can be better. Even those who claim no religious affiliation or who are adamantly opposed to Christianity have been infected with the optimism and hope of a life that extends beyond the grave. We have a hard time understanding the despair and hopelessness of cultures with no hope of eternal life, or live in fear of angry gods. I’ve attended and officiated at numerous funerals of people who have little or no observable Christian commitment, but who believe their loved one is finally at rest with those who have died before. “Christendom” casts a long shadow.

So even if you don’t feel particularly joyous today, still give thanks for the gift of life and the promise of eternal bliss that we who believe in a risen Christ possess. Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed.