Christ is risen! Christ is risen, indeed!
At the Easter Egg hunt this year, an unnamed pastor’s kid asserted to the group of children that it made no sense that Jesus had defeated death. In that moment, he gave voice to a statement all of us think at some point or another. Many of us have heard the Easter story enough times that we are no longer shocked by the notion that death could be defeated.
That elementary challenge gave voice to the truth of the matter. For as long as humans have been drawing breath, one truth that has applied to all of them is that one day they will stop drawing breath. To say someone could overwrite this truth is unsettling. It shakes the foundation of our understanding of what it means to be human. And, perhaps, that is the point.
Jesus defeated death that we might have life. God resurrected Jesus from the grave that we humans might be reconciled to God. As a result of the resurrection, we can live a full life in the knowledge that this life is not all there is. The grave is not the end. In that sure and certain hope, there is freedom. And when we live in that freedom, it just might happen that someone will see the way we are living and say “that makes no sense.” To which we can reply that it does, because “Christ is risen; Christ is risen, indeed!”