It’s the Light…
It took me a while to figure out what it is that makes Easter sunrise services so special to me. But it boils down to the light.
Standing there with the sunlight softly rising in intensity, I think of the women heading to the place where Jesus’ body was in the first rays of morning light, for the purpose of anointing the body. Grief enveloped them like a cape in the half-dark, half-light. But little did they know what awaited them.
As they approached the tomb, the account of the Gospel writer Matthew tells us, there was an earthquake, and an angel of the Lord came down from heaven, breaking into the soft morning light with a face that shone like lightning and clothing that was as white as snow. This angel broke the news to the terrified women that the lifeless body they sought was not there. Jesus was no longer lifeless, but alive, God the Son having conquered the power of death. Matthew says the women were very frightened, but also filled with great joy.
Remembering this story on Easter morning, I feel the same joy. I feel joy thinking about Jesus, the light of the world, who overcame the darkness that held humanity captive – because we were powerless to overcome it ourselves – and opened to us a new way, a way of light and freedom.
We long for enlightenment. We recognize that we seem to be stuck on a non-enlightened plane, but that there is a state in which enlightenment, peace and true self-acceptance are possible. Sometimes we think we’ve found it, but it seems every mountaintop experience is inevitably followed by another valley of shadow.
But Jesus said, “I have come as a light to shine in this dark world, so that all who put their trust in me will no longer remain in the dark.” Later, as he knew the hour of his death was approaching, he told his disciples, “I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.”
This is the Jesus – the God of the universe made human – who suffered and died an agonizing death for the sake of every human, rather than see us punished and separated from him forever because of our many rejections of his way.
And because he is God, he conquered death and evil when he rose from the grave Easter morning, and he promises to those who believe this a future paradise where sickness, ignorance, violence and brokenness – darkness – are completely non-existent, a world we seem to know deep down we were created for.
The book of Revelation says that in that paradise, there’s no need for sun and moon, because the glory of God illuminates the city, and Jesus is its light.
In the crisp light of dawn this Easter morning, I will again remember the promise that just as the sunlight comes anew every morning, the mercies of my God are new each morning, too. And how I need them. As I remember the light of the world and what he means to my life, I hope you, too, find light this Easter Sunday.
— Lark Reynolds, friend and collaborator of Subtle-Arts