HE IS RISEN!

            I love Easter!  My grandfather wrote a book called I Love Christmas, but I love Easter.  It is not just that I love this time of year with the warmer weather, sunshine (though I know we need the rain, I will be glad when it does not rain quite as much!), the return of the hummingbirds, the flowers (I spend way too much money at the garden center!), the opportunity to sit on my front porch without being either too hot or too cold.  But I really love Easter because it is the crux, the center of my faith, of my life.

            I have heard others say that even if the resurrection were not true, even if Christ had never risen from the dead, even if there were no life after death, they would still be glad they had lived their lives as Christians.  I totally disagree.  I would not want to have lived my life based on a lie.  I would not want to live deceived.

            The apostle Paul agreed with me.  In I Corinthians 15:14-19 he says,

            “And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.  Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ:  whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not.  For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised:  And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.  Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.  If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.”

            “Of all men most miserable”—does that sound as if Paul would be glad even if he had lived his life based on a lie?  If that were the end of Paul’s reflection, then I would be most miserable.  But that is not the end.  The very next verse says, “But now is Christ risen from the dead!”

            In John 11 is the story of the death of Lazarus.  When he first saw Martha, before he went to the tomb of Lazarus, Jesus spoke words that make me both want to cry and to shout.  He said, “I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:  and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.  Believest thou this?”  (John 11:25-26)

             I want to shout, “YES, I BELIEVE!  YOU ARE THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE!”

            Many years ago I found a poem that expresses my feelings so well, If Easter Be Not True by Henry H. Barstow

If Easter be not true, Then all the lilies low must lie; The Flanders poppies fade and die; The spring must lose her fairest bloom For Christ were still within the tomb If Easter be not true. If Easter be not true, Then faith must mount on broken wing; Then hope no more immortal spring; Then love must lose her mighty urge; Life prove a phantom, death a dirge If Easter be not true.   If Easter be not true, 'Twere foolishness the cross to bear; He died in vain Who suffered there; What matter though we laugh or cry, Be good or evil, live or die, If Easter be not true?   If Easter be not true But it  is  true, and Christ is risen! And mortal spirit from its prison Of sin and death with Him may rise! Worthwhile the struggle, sure the prize, Since Easter, aye, is true!                      Hallelujah!  He is risen!

                                                                           

                                                                            ~Faith Lamb