Easter: A hopeful season

It was an early spring morning.  Grieving women made their way to a garden sepulchre.  They had prepared spices and ointments to anoint the lifeless body of their Master.  But arriving at an empty tomb, they heard angels proclaiming: “Why seek ye the living among the dead?  He is not here, but is risen.”

They remembered Jesus had said, “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.”  Now they knew it was true, and the women proclaimed the glorious news:  Christ had risen.  There was, as He had promised, life after death.

But the Easter story is not complete with an empty tomb and a vision of what lies after death.  In Jesus we can find a new life now, a new life before the grave.  For Christ said, “He that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.”  The Easter story continues so long as men and women find a new life by losing their lives in service to the Master.

So, the Easter story continues when we break our bread and share it with those who hunger.  It continues when we spend time with someone lonely or ill, or when we are generous with our praise and encouragement.  The Easter story continues when we take the first step to end a quarrel or find it in our hearts to forgive.

The coming of another Easter stirs our thoughts anew to the issues of life, and death, and immortality.  We think much at this season of those we cherish who have already departed from us; where are they, and when shall we again behold them?  For answer, there are many who cry out from the depths of their hearts.

There are some who feel they have the answer.  Others steadfastly deny all possibility of immortality, and there are still others who accept it with many qualifications.  Those who profess the greatest doubts are often most inclined to talking about the subject.  Those who have a quiet assurance of their own personal continuance seem little disposed to raise the issue.  Thoughtful men are not given to much talk about things they know so well.

We don’t quibble as to whether or not spring will come again, yet that we shall come forth from death to life is more certain than spring’s return.  “If it were not so, I would have told you.” Is the assurance that came from the Saviour of the world, and for Him, and for His followers—and for all men—the question was settled there.  “If it were not so, I would have told you.”  The fact that we may not understand the process by which all this will be brought about, does not cast doubt upon its reality.  Truth, fortunately, is not limited by the present understanding of men.  In the years that brought his more mature convictions, Ralph Waldo Emerson said simply:  “All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen.”  That so many other great minds have spoken in this same vein is comforting and reassuring, but no matter who chooses to believe or disbelieve it, the facts remain, as the Lord, Himself, has spoken directly and through His servants, the prophets, one of whom said:  “Behold, there is a time appointed that all shall come forth from the dead.  Now, when this time cometh, no man knoweth—but God knoweth * * *  that all shall rise from the dead.”  (Book of Mormon, Alma 4:4,5).

This glorious certainty rises above all the uncertainties of our troubled generation.  And so, while those who disbelieve still quibble, those who believe find abiding peace in the assurance that we and all those we love and all men of all time shall continue beyond the present, beyond death, unto life everlasting.  Of such is the message of Easter, if there be those who doubt it, let them doubt no more.  If there be those who mourn, let them take comfort.  If there be those who love life, let them prepare to live it, forever.

It’s been said that God rewrites the book of Genesis every Easter spring season. “In the beginning” takes on special meaning each year as we witness the renewed life, the rebirth, and the new beginnings that seem to be built in to earth’s cycle of seasons. It’s as if nature itself is trying to tell us that whatever we are going through, things can change—things can get better. No matter how long the winter, spring is sure to follow. The days will become a little brighter, the weather a little warmer, and life will be restored. Ultimately, it’s a reminder of the hope expressed by Robert Browning: “God’s in his heaven—all’s right with the world!”

We need that reassurance from time to time, especially in moments when life gets hard and all doesn’t seem right with the world. When the fire of truth and faith has been extinguished, we need to know that it can be rekindled and burn again in our souls. When hearts have been broken and dreams shattered, we need to be reminded that they can be mended and rebuilt over time. Just as surely as brown grass, battered shrubs, and leafless trees can become green and blooming once again, we can believe in the promise of new life and renewed beginnings. 

That is the hope of this season. It is the assurance that nothing is ever permanently lost, that no one is forever gone. Indeed, heartbreak, discouragement—even death itself is not final, as long as we have hope in that “resurrection day in spring.” This is why we sing, “Hail the day that sees us rise”—from doubt to devotion, from fear to faith, from death to life!

For, on this Easter season we speak not only of death, but also of life, of eons of it, of whole eternities of it, eternal life flowing endlessly, without limits or boundaries, eternal lives of laughing, loving, learning.

This then is our true thesis season, as we celebrate the morning of all mornings when a stone was rolled away from a sepulchre near Jerusalem to reveal an empty tomb—empty of death, empty of fear, empty forever. As all tombs, sepulchres, and graves will be forever empty—their contents born again into the everlasting life which will know no corruption.

Thanks be to God for death which frees us from this imperfection. Thanks be to God for a knowledge of the resurrection which fills us with visions of eternal life.

By Samuel Enos Eghan