A Confusing Easter

It’s Saturday here in Malaysia and I’m looking forward to tomorrow.

The best part about Easter Sunday is saying, “He is risen!” and then hearing the responses: “Hallelujah!” or “He is risen indeed!” I send out a text first thing Easter morning: “He is risen!” Then, over the next few hours, I enjoy reading beautiful responses as we celebrate the joy. My heart is full and I feel even a bit of excitement, like, “Wow, He really is risen! This is big. This is worth celebrating!”

The First Easter

As I read the Resurrection Story in Luke 24, the timing of events strikes me. The first thing that happens is “very early in the morning” (v.1), then “when they came back from the tomb,” (v. 9) and then “that same day” (v. 13) and when the day was “almost over” (v. 29). All day long the believers struggled. “They were wondering” (v. 4, 12), “they did not believe” (v. 11), their faces were “downcast” (v. 17) and “they talked and discussed these things with each other,” (v. 15). It wasn’t until Easter night that there was any real celebrating.

The two men who walked seven miles to Emmaus arrived when the day was nearing its end. They ate dinner but then immediately returned to Jerusalem. That would have taken them a couple of hours. So it had to be the evening by the time they joined the eleven apostles and the others who were with them. Even then, when Jesus appeared and said, “Peace be with you,” it took them a few minutes to receive that peace. They jumped in fear. They thought He was a ghost. Jesus showed them His hands and feet. And guess what, they still did not believe “because of joy and amazement.” Those poor disciples had such a roller coaster day!

The Fact

The disciples’ sadness and then confusion and their struggle to believe something way too amazing to dare believe, did not change the truth: Jesus was risen from the grave. That confusing First Easter is like our lives today. Jesus has redeemed us, and we spend our days happy, sad, confused…we struggle with unbelief, we don’t dare to believe something so joyful, so amazing, but all along the way it doesn’t change the fact: Jesus is Risen. He has conquered the worst that can happen to us. How can we not trust Him with all the lesser things along the way?

I smile and say, “He is risen,” and I get excited all over again when I hear the response, “He is risen indeed”. But today I also remember that it wasn’t until Easter Evening that Jesus’ disciples really “got it.” They wrestled with the facts, but that never changed the truth. And at the end of the day, Jesus Himself brought them peace. What a wonderful reason to celebrate.

He is risen indeed!

*The picture above is the sign we put outside our gate last year when we were in a strict lockdown and could not leave the house.

What is your favorite thing about Easter?