Easter faith

It’s early on Easter morning and still dark outside. Appropriately, I’ve just read the words from John’s Gospel: “Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb…” (John 20:1) Why did Mary get up so early? She didn’t have a clock radio waking her up, she couldn’t flick a switch to turn on the lights and get out of bed, there were no streetlights to guide her way, and the tomb wasn’t a tourist attraction yet with signs pointing to the site. She went because it was a matter of life and death: someone she loved dearly had died and she couldn’t sleep.

I haven’t been to a sunrise service in years. Whatever motivated Mary isn’t motivating me. And it doesn’t motivate most people who celebrate Easter. Some kids get up early because they’re excited that the Easter Bunny has left them a basket. Some women are motivated by the opportunity to dress up and show off new clothes. Some people go to church because they feel guilty if they don’t go: they hear their mother’s voice in their heads. For others there’s a desire in their hearts to be involved in a tradition and a culture that’s bigger than themselves.

The last two are both a part of the reason I go to Easter worship (and because it’s my job!). But which is better: to be compelled because it’s a matter of life and death or to go because it’s part of the faith tradition to which I belong? I already know that Jesus is alive, so I can’t really be compelled by the first reason. Or can I? I can go to worship on Easter because I love Jesus and also because it’s an expression of my trust in him as the source of my life. His resurrection is the sign that God’s salvation has arrived. My trust in him is how that salvation is realized in me. And as I renew my trust through Easter worship, I become a messenger of that salvation for this world, heralding the future day when “the kingdom of this world” will become “the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ.” (Rev. 11:15)

Hallelujah! He is risen, he is risen indeed!