4 April 2010 – Easter
Psalm 148, 149, 150; Exod. 12:1-14; John 1:1-18

Jesus is the fulfillment of the Passover from Egypt. The calendar of the people of God was always out of sync with the calendar of the rest of the world, from this day of Passover forward. Their new life began on the day that the Lord announced that He would deliver them from Egypt, and the Passover festival was ten days later. The lamb who was slain and eaten by the people of Israel, having done as God commanded with the blood on the doorpost, became the symbol of the day. The lamb had to be kept with the family several days prior to its sacrifice, ensuring that it was personally difficult to slaughter it, a true sacrifice. This sacrifice, however, was only the beginning of the sacrifices required to maintain covenant relationship with God, but it was the one that initiated and defined the relationship. It was to be a celebration in remembrance of what the Lord did this night but also the promise of what was to come for those who keep Passover.

John’s prologue is unmatched in the Biblical literature for its beauty and its powerful statement of who was Jesus. On this day of days, which has become for us the demarcation line between two eras, before Christ and after his death, it is an incredible statement of truth that “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” The glory of Jesus and the glorification of Jesus are complete in the resurrection from the dead. What was once corruptible flesh is now being glorified and becoming incorruptible, and the completion of the process allows us to take on His Spirit, the firstfruits of the kingdom in us now.

What joy the disciples must have experienced but not before passing through disbelief at the testimony of the women that surely could not be true. Peter and John had to see for themselves and yet even then, how could they believe that the explanation was resurrection as opposed to someone removing the body? Easter morning surely had their emotions running riot, a vast emptiness on awakening replaced by this news and then, what, how do you come to believe that this is true? We tend to give Thomas a hard time as he would only believe when he saw, but could anyone?

Welcome Happy Morning age to age shall say:
hell today is vanquished,
heaven is won today!
Lo! the dead is living, God for evermore!
Him their true Creator, all his works adore!