Happy Easter. After Easter, now everything is different. Nothing is like it was before. Something amazing and miraculous has happened, and we can’t go back to what it was like before. This was not like anything else that’s ever happened. There have been other great leaders. David was a great king, and he lived, but he died. We can see his tomb. But Jesus lived, and he died, and he rose. That’s the difference.

I can totally understand why people would find that hard to believe. It’s hard to believe even now. Jesus’ own disciple Thomas couldn’t believe it. You can’t blame them. In all of human history – before and since – people are born and live and then they die. And unfortunately, they stay dead. I watched my husband die and my parents, and they are still dead. But Jesus rose.

That changes everything. It changes how we look at the world and how we look at life and how we look at death. Now death is not just an ending it’s also a beginning. Jesus told us then showed us that there is something bigger, that there is something beyond.

Of course the elders would try to discredit this story. Of course they would try to say it didn’t happen, that the body was stolen or moved. This changes too much.  This means that there is something beyond this physical world. This means that there is a rule beyond the political rule. This changes everything we thought we knew about the world and our position in it.
We know now that this is not all there is. We know now that there is something beyond, and Jesus can lead us there.