Death has no ultimate power in the Kingdom of God in Christ. Where’s your sting, death? Jesus came looking for you; found you; and put you to death with His resurrection. Go to hell, death! Χριστός ανέστη! This is the Good News, the Evangel, the kerygma that the Christian reality is contingent upon. As the Apostle Paul once said, ‘if Christ be not risen, we are of all people most to be pitied.’ But He is risen; risen indeed! This is our hope; this is the only hope this fallen and ruptured world has. This strange Easter morning Christians stand united in the koinonia of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; we do this only because Christ is risen. He transcends the walls we sheltered by, the walls of our homes this COVID – 19 morning, and unites us as one body as we, as those with the Spirit, are in union with Christ (unio cum Christo). Our fellowship isn’t contingent upon our gathering together in physical assembly, even though it is a blessed event to participate in. Our fellowship is contingent upon the eternal fellowship always already shared in and among the interpenetrating life of our triune God. It is in their fellowship that Christians have fellowship one with the other; it is through the Holy Spirit’s recreative work, as He has bound us to that in the resurrected humanity of Jesus Christ, wherein we find our rest and fellowship this Easter morning. May we understand this reality this morning, and every morning to come. May we finally participate in this fellowship, with the living God in Jesus Christ, no longer simply by faith, but by the sight of Christ for us. May we experience this great Easter reality in beatific vision with all the saints once and for all; in a place where there is no more sickness, disease, or death.

Now the first day of the week Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. 2 Then she ran and came to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him.” 3 Peter therefore went out, and the other disciple, and were going to the tomb. 4 So they both ran together, and the other disciple outran Peter and came to the tomb first. 5 And he, stooping down and looking in, saw the linen cloths lying there; yet he did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb; and he saw the linen cloths lying there, 7 and the handkerchief that had been around His head, not lying with the linen cloths, but folded together in a place by itself. 8 Then the other disciple, who came to the tomb first, went in also; and he saw and believed. 9 For as yet they did not know the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead. 10 Then the disciples went away again to their own homes. 11 But Mary stood outside by the tomb weeping, and as she wept she stooped down and looked into the tomb. 12 And she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. 13 Then they said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him.” 14 Now when she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” She, supposing Him to be the gardener, said to Him, “Sir, if You have carried Him away, tell me where You have laid Him, and I will take Him away.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to Him, “Rabboni!” (which is to say, Teacher). 17 Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.’ ” 18 Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that He had spoken these things to her. –John 20:1-18

Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed!!