Easter Sunday – April 5th, 2026

Matthew 28:1-10

Resurrection : Easter Day!

What is Easter for you?  When I reflect on that question, I think about the Easter’s when I was a child receiving a New dress to wear to church on Easter Sunday and sometimes maybe an easter hat to go along with it, and the glorious feeling that was in that not only for me but what it stood for, that something wonderful had happened, and I got to dress up for it. Of course when I got older, though there wasn’t always a new Easter dress to wear, still the thought of what Easter was about, the Resurrection of our Lord, that Glorious feeling of great joy, was always there on Easter Day. 

When I became a Priest in the Church, I loved the Sunrise Services.  It was such a wonderful feeling to get up while it was still dark, and head out to the church before the first light of day had even come up; sometimes I felt like the women heading out to the tomb, I however knew something Glorious had taken place as they didn’t that first Easter morning;  as I walked with the sun just starting to peep over the horizon, that glorious feeling I had as a child would come flooding back to me because of the newness I felt in the day; that a whole new day was dawning because Resurrection had happened.

The women heading out to the tomb that first Easter Morning were going there thinking only that they were to mourn the body of Jesus; when they got there however every thing had changed.  Matthew tells this in a spectacular way, with the sound of great earthquakes, and an angel descending from heaven, with the appearance of lightning, and clothes white as snow.  (28:2,3)

This was Matthew’s way of telling us that the Resurrection of Jesus was an earth shaking event, cosmic in nature; that it was monumental, so monumental that the guards at the tomb, shook in great fear and became as dead men; That tomb had been shut tight by the Romans with a great stone sealing its entrance to make sure that no one entered in or came out of that place. Though empire thought they had won the day, so to speak, in crucifying Jesus on the Cross, and sealing his body in a tomb, that however wasn’t the end of the story, there was more to be told, much more, and resurrection day, Easter is a reminder of that.  That Jesus in rising again, conquered death for ever; making it a whole new day for all. 

“Do not be afraid,’ the angel says to the women, ‘I know that you are here looking for Jesus who was crucified; He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. Come see the place where he lay.“ (28:6,7)

These women were the first to receive the News of the Resurrection, and they were to give witness to what they saw;  the empty tomb was for them a sign to carry forward what they had seen and been told. “Go quickly and tell the disciples, Jesus has been raised from the dead, and indeed he has gone ahead of you to Galilee, there you will see him.”  (28:8)

The women went from the tomb with fear and great Joy; (9) Fear no doubt because of the message they were carrying with them; what might happen should it get out and the Romans find out about it before they got to the others, or what if no one would believe them.  Women weren’t considered to be credible witnesses in that day and the likelihood of the disciples not believing them was real for them. They however could not contain the joy within them, for it was as if a whole a new day for them had already begun, even though they hadn’t yet seen Jesus.  And that too is a reminder to us that though we don’t have the empty tomb, or Jesus to be present with us as he was to them then, we do however have the story they have shared with us down through the ages, the story of resurrection, that speaks good news for us still today, so that we too in our own times of uncertainty, fear or doubt even, can live in the hope and promise the resurrection gives. 

Meeting the women on the way, Jesus says to them, ‘Greetings’, (10) can you just imagine what that was like for them; will you know we can, if we just stop long enough to listen, to observe, to think even, perhaps you might even hear him speak your name as he does to Mary in another of the Easter gospels; or if we quiet our minds for a moment, we might just feel him real close, know him present with us, as they did; or as in the dawn of a new day breaking over the horizon with the sun coming up, a Glorious moment indeed of felt presence in which you know God to be real close; Holy moments calling us to take notice, that we might see and know our God with us. 

The women came to Jesus, held onto him, and worshipped him; they held onto him, …they didn’t just have the empty tomb now to assure them of the resurrection, but they had touched the living body of the risen Lord. And while we don’t have the empty tomb or the Lord present with us to see or touch as they did, we know however because the story as been told for the many generations of telling that it has, that we have as great a confirmation of the resurrection as anyone needs, but the real confirmation comes when we simply believe, believe in the resurrection promise to new life, and know the transformation that it gives.  

 “Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee Jesus says; there they will see me.” The woman could not stay there but had to go and tell, and I love that Jesus says, “go tell my brothers”, these were the same ones who had deserted Jesus, denied him, and yet Jesus refers to them as ‘his brother’s. ‘ A reminder of his great love for us all, and the reconciling promise of our God, in the new day that is given.

So my friends go live resurrection today, live it out in hope, live the new life of promise and renewal that it brings, experience the Joy of Easter and be that in the felt presence of Christ’s love, the peace and Joy that he gives and so much needed in our world today.  

              Jesus Christ is risen today, Alleluia! Our triumphant Holy Day, Alleluia!

Happy Easter to all. 

Amen, God Bless. 

Hannah+