Luke 24:1–8 (NIV)

¹ On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. ² They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, ³ but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. ⁴ While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. ⁵ In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? ⁶ He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: ⁷ ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ” ⁸ Then they remembered his words.

Searching 

Why do you look for the living among the dead? V. 5 

The miracle of the Resurrection wasn’t meant to prove God’s power to Himself. It was meant to remind you and me that, no matter how things appear, death does not have the final word. 

Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. -John 11:25–26

Remember 

Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ” Then they remembered his words. V. 6-8

When we are able to trace the patterns of the fabric of the universe, the name for the emotion connected to that experience is joy. 

Easter Blessing 

On this Easter morning,

let us look again at the lives we have been so generously given

and let us let fall away the useless baggage that we carry—

old pains, old habits, old ways of seeing and feeling—

and let us have the courage to begin again.

Life is very short,

and we are no sooner here than it is time to depart again,

and we should use to the full, the time that we still have.

We don’t realize all the good we can do.

A kind, encouraging word

or helping hand

can bring many a person through dark valleys in their lives.

We weren’t put here to make money

or to acquire status or reputation.

We were sent here to search for the light of Easter in our hearts,

and when we find it, we are meant to give it away generously.

The dawn that is rising this Easter morning is a gift to our hearts,

and we are meant to celebrate it

and to carry away from this holy, ancient place

the gifts of healing and light

and the courage of a new beginning.

-John O’Donohue