What kind of Easter people are we?

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Are we living into the promise of Easter Day, or are we still stuck somewhere between the violence of Good Friday and the bleakness of Saturday? When the women come to us and proclaim the incomprehensibly good news, how do we respond?

Our response can and should be rooted in love. As Jesus himself told us before everything got out of control, love for God and love for our neighbour is the crux of the story, is the Kingdom come near. Because God loves us without reservation, because nothing, nothing, nothing can separate us from the love of God, even when we whip, strip and hang God on a cross to die, we are still loved and forgiven. Our response to this love is not only to love God as deeply and fully as we are able, but also to love our neighbour else as deeply and fully as we love God and ourselves.

After the horror of Friday and the darkness of Saturday can we even remember who Jesus said our neighbour is? Our neighbour is the one we would revile, the outsider, the one our humanly-constructed religions and cultures have told us to fear, to hate. Our neighbour is the one we would not touch, but none-the-less lifts us from our broken lives to carry us to compassion’s doorstep. If we are Easter people we are called to respond to grace of that scandalous day, that unwarranted forgiveness and unearnable love with nothing less than love.

When we can respond to God’s radical grace with equivalent love and grace for all our sisters and brothers, then and only then will we truly be Easter people who will be lifted from the tomb of fear and darkness to declare – Christ has risen, Christ has risen indeed!

Adapted from a blog by Kimberley Knight