Welcome friends. Simply click the video below and let us celebrate the Lord Jesus Christ’s victory over sin, death, and hell by means of a mighty resurrection.
To extend our recognition of this glorious day, here are two links for you:
I’ve Just Seen Jesus sung by Larnelle Harris and Sandi Patty is an oldie, but still a wondrous goodie.
Hallelujah Chorus arranged by Quincy Jones is one of the most celebratory arrangements you’ll find on this classic Handel song. Sung by the Singin’ Black and White choir, if this doesn’t bring you to life, you still think Jesus is a gardener.
Finally, here is the full version of the original hymn written by Carolyn Gillette (sung at the beginning of the video):
This Easter Celebration (to the tune of “The Church’s One Foundation”)
This Easter celebration is not like ones we’ve known.
We pray in isolation, we sing the hymns alone.
We’re distant from our neighbors — from worship leaders, too.
No flowers grace the chancel to set a festive mood.
No gathered choirs are singing; no banners lead the way.
O God of love and promise, where’s joy this Easter Day?
With sanctuaries empty, may homes become the place
we ponder resurrection and celebrate your grace.
Our joy won’t come from worship that’s in a crowded room
but from the news of women who saw the empty tomb.
Our joy comes from disciples who ran with haste to see —
who heard that Christ is risen, and then, by grace, believed.
In all the grief and suffering, may we remember well:
Christ suffered crucifixion and faced the powers of hell.
Each Easter bears the promise: Christ rose that glorious day!
Now nothing in creation can keep your love away.
We thank you that on Easter, your church is blessed to be
a scattered, faithful body that’s doing ministry.
In homes and in the places of help and healing, too,
we live the Easter message by gladly serving you.
Tune: Samuel Sebastian Wesley, 1864 (“The Church’s One Foundation”) (MIDI)
This new hymn is a prayer to be used in Easter 2020 worship services, while most churches are closed and people are remaining in their homes because of the pandemic. It can be used for online worship or in online written communications from a church to its members. Permission is given for free use.
Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”
So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus’ head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. Finally, the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.)
Then the disciples went back to their homes, but Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.
They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”
“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.
“Woman,” he said, “why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”
Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have carried him, and I will get him.”
Jesus said to her, “Mary.”
She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher).
Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”
Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” and she told them that he had said these things to her.
Although Peter and John have a role in this story about Christ’s resurrection, the main character is Mary Magdalene. This is significant and symbolic of the fact that it was Mary who experienced one of the most profound and deep changes of life due to the ministry of Jesus. Mary had been an immoral woman and spiritually enslaved to the machinations of seven demons. It was Jesus who thoroughly delivered her from her personal hell. Mary was forever thankful to him for changing her life, and so, she followed Jesus and supported him in any way she could. Mary was at the foot of the cross when Jesus died. While other disciples were keeping their distance out of fear, Mary was bold in standing with the other women for all to see that they were completely devoted to Jesus. Mary never turned her back on Jesus. It was Mary who was there on the Sunday morning of Christ’s resurrection. Whereas the other followers were nowhere to be found, Mary came to the grave, still with a heart given to Jesus and grieving over his death.
Because Mary had been given a new chance at life, she was deeply thankful and everything she had belonged to Jesus. Mary Magdalene was forgiven much, and, so she loved much. Here she is, after her Lord’s crucifixion, death, and burial, at the grave of Jesus. Mary came to the tomb on Easter Sunday still living in a Good Friday world – grieving, sad, and discouraged. She soon discovered, however, that Christ is risen!
In the midst of your days of disappointment, loss, or sadness, how have you been surprised by joy and the presence of the risen Christ? How has your grief been turned to gratitude? Have you seen the risen Lord?
One day, 33 years ago, I was down sick with the flu and in bed. I barely remember my wife coming into the bedroom after a doctor’s appointment upset and crying. She was trying to rouse me with a mix of good and bad news. Mary had gone to the doctor thinking that she probably had picked up my flu. Instead, the doctor gave her the news that she was pregnant with our first child. But there was more….
After the examination the doctor had reason to believe that our little baby might be in the wrong place – that she was not where she should be and may very well be in the fallopian tube and not the womb. So, here I am – barely able to move getting out of bed – driving my wife to the hospital for an ultrasound with such a range of emotions within me that all I can do is weep, feeling, much like Mary Magdalene, that my Lord has been taken away from me. It just felt like I didn’t know where Jesus was at that moment and why I was going through this surreal craziness.
I will never forget the words and even the tone of voice of the ultrasound technician as we anxiously stared at a screen we didn’t understand. The technician said, “She is right where she is supposed to be!” The tears turned to complete joy. And the words were prophetic. There was no way that the technician could know at six weeks in the womb that we were having a little girl, yet she referred to the peanut within my wife as “she.” And we immediately knew what her name was: “Sarah,” which is the Hebrew name for “Princess.” God had graced us with a precious gift of royalty, coming from the grace of King Jesus.
I want us to know this morning, on this great Day of Resurrection, that we are right where we are supposed to be. It might seem out of place spending so much time at home; not working in ways we’re used to, or even working at all; wondering where God is or how the divine fits into this topsy-turvy situation of pandemic and economic instability. The truth of matter is this: You are right where you are supposed to be. God has you precisely where he wants you. This morning, right now, you are a witness to the resurrection of Jesus. Along with Mary Magdalene there is the astonished declaration, “I have seen Jesus.”
“Do Not Hold On to Me,” by He Qi, 2013. Jesus and Mary Magdalene
Let Mary Magdalene’s experience be of encouragement to you. Mary had been given a new life and was transformed by the Lord. Yet, on Easter Sunday she did not immediately get what the heck was going on. Jesus rising from death was not anywhere on her radar. The empty tomb and the angels did not immediately lead her to faith – not until she saw Jesus, and even then, she did not recognize him. Only when Jesus called her name did Mary recognize him and respond, believing it was her Lord. And Jesus is still calling out names. He is calling your name. Jesus had said to his disciples that the sheep listen to the shepherd’s voice; he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out (John 10:3-4). One little word can change our lives forever: our name.
Easter opens a whole new world for us, as it did for Mary – a future of announcing good news and proclaiming resurrection. There is a simple reason why the grave clothes were left in the tomb just lying there – they were not needed anymore! We no longer need the grave clothes of discouragement, defeat, and despair. We no longer need to weep and wonder, because Christ is risen! He has called our name and we hear his voice.
The 20th century Swiss theologian, Karl Barth, said that what brings people to worship God – not just on Easter, but any day – is an unspoken question clinging to our minds and hearts: Is it true? Is it true that God lives? Is it true that Jesus is alive? Could it be true that I can live a new life in Christ? Is it true that I can rebuild my life? Is it all true? Mary Magdalene approached the tomb and found that it was true.
All over the world, this very day, followers of Jesus are testifying that this is all real: Christ is risen, and there is new life in Jesus our Lord. Right now, believers across the globe are worshiping the risen Lord because they declare along with us, “I have seen the Lord!”
God has always been in the business of changing lives. British author A. N. Wilson, used to be known for his scathing attacks on Christianity and proclaimed the death of God… celebrated Easter in 2009 at a church with a group of other church members, proclaiming that that the story of the Jesus of the Gospels is the only story that makes sense out of life and its challenges. Wilson said, “My own return to faith has surprised none more than myself …. My belief has come about in large measure because of the lives and examples of people I have known—not the famous, not saints, but friends and relations who have lived, and faced death, in light of the resurrection story, and in the quiet acceptance that they have a future after they die.”
The moment Jesus calls a person’s name, the power of the resurrection is enabled—the same power that raised Jesus from the dead. See what you consider as immovable slabs of stone in your life—maybe it’s bitterness, insecurity, fear, self-doubt or cynicism. Those immense rocks can be rolled away. To know Jesus is to know the power of the resurrection. We don’t need to merely hear testimonies of changed lives like Mary Magdalene’s; we can experience new life ourselves.
There is one word, one name, which has forever changed the world: “Jesus.” And Jesus wants to change the world by uttering one simple word, one name: your name, so that you can exclaim with great joy, “I have seen the Lord!”
Mighty God, as Christ burst forth from the grave, may new life explode from us and show itself in acts of love and healing to a hurting world. May your ever-living Son, Jesus our Lord, keep our hearts rejoicing and grant us peace this day and always in resurrection power. Amen.
Christ suffered here on earth. Now you must be ready to suffer as he did, because suffering shows that you have stopped sinning. It means you have turned from your own desires and want to obey God for the rest of your life. You have already lived long enough like people who don’t know God. You were immoral and followed your evil desires. You went around drinking and partying and carrying on. In fact, you even worshiped disgusting idols. Now your former friends wonder why you have stopped running around with them, and they curse you for it. But they will have to answer to God, who judges the living and the dead. The good news has even been preached to the dead, so that after they have been judged for what they have done in this life, their spirits will live with God. Everything will soon come to an end. So be serious and be sensible enough to pray. Most important of all, you must sincerely love each other, because love wipes away many sins. (CEV)
I haven’t been a confessing Christian my entire life. I can relate to Peter’s exhortation. I still remember what it feels like to live my life without any thought to God or spiritual matters. The thing about partying and immorality is that it’s a life filled with constant movement. Slowing down only makes one come face-to-face with what is truly inside the soul. And if someone has an empty vacuous soul, or a damaged spirit, or a broken heart, then attempting to drink or work away the inner pain makes sense when there’s no regard for God. The last thing I ever wanted to do was suffer, yet before my own spiritual awakening it seemed I could never outrun the hurt no matter how hard I tried, even with all the constant locomotion.
Today is Holy Saturday – a quiet place sandwiched between the ignominy of the cross and the celebration of resurrection – a day of solitude, silence, and stillness. This is something of a lost day for many folks. In fact, many Christians haven’t had a thought that Holy Saturday could have any significance. Yet, this very day has its place in the scheme of the Christian life.
There cannot be resurrection and new life without a death and dying to self. There must be suffering before there can be glory. Whenever Christians quickly jump to triumphal language about victory and speak little-to-nothing about suffering, then we are left with a cheap grace which has been purchased with the counterfeit currency of velocity.
Today is meant for us to get out of our heads and wrap our hearts around the important reality that Jesus Christ was in the grave. It was real suffering on Good Friday, and it is a real death on Holy Saturday. There is no movement. All is silent and still. Jesus is in the solitude of a dark tomb. There’s no getting around it. If we want a Resurrection Day with all its celebration and glory, then we cannot circumvent Holy Saturday.
To put this in the spirit of the Apostle Peter: Are we ready to follow Jesus and suffer as he did? Are we willing to stop our striving, manifested through constant movement, and embrace the Holy Saturday of solitude, silence, stillness with its contemplation and embrace of suffering? Will you and I have sense enough to pray? Will we practice a Christian counter-cultural shift and face the ridicule of friends so that we might take some much-needed time to be with Jesus in the tomb? Or, are we so antsy and anxious that we just want to leap into Easter with no solidarity with our Lord in the grave?
You may think I’m being a bit too hard or harsh or cold…. That’s because Jesus is cold. He has a bona fide cold dead body. It’s no fake death. There’s no “swoon theory” here, as if Christ only passed-out and did a weird divine fainting spell. Nope. He’s dead. And if you and I want to live with Jesus, we must die with Jesus.
Anyone who tries to promise a new life apart from journeying with Jesus into the grave is a spiritual charlatan. Only through death can there be life.
On this Holy Saturday, let’s intentionally slow down, do less, give ourselves a large chunk of unstructured time, and put aside routine matters. Fill the time with unfettered access to God in Christ. Slowly read the Gospel accounts of Christ’s death and burial. Read the book of 1 Peter. Allow prayers to arise from the careful and mindful reading of Scripture. Feel the solidarity with Jesus, journey with him along the way from life to death… so that there might be a truly glorious resurrection filled with abundant life and flourishing – a life that doesn’t need hedonism and workaholism to feel happy and significant.
May you die well so that you might live well.
Precious Lord Jesus, today all is silent. You died a horrific death and gave incredible mercy from your wounded heart. Now you rest in the tomb as the soldiers keep vigil. I also keep vigil, although in a very different way. I know this day doesn’t last forever; there is tremendous glory coming. Yet, for now I sit quietly mourning your death. Assist me, God Almighty, to enter the sorrow and the silence of this Holy Saturday. Today, help me to wait patiently and to sit with this constellation of emotions swirling around my heart. As I keep this sacred vigil, fill me with hope – not only looking forward to the celebration of your Resurrection – yet also to anticipate the hope of my own share in the new life you offer, as you lay lifeless and still. May your rest transform the brokenness of my own soul, my weaknesses, and my sin. I express my trust, O my Father God, in your mighty power to do all things through Jesus Christ, my Lord, your beloved Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Depiction of Christ on the Cross at Holy Hill in Hubertus, Wisconsin
The Lord says, “See, my servant will act wisely.
People will greatly honor and respect him.
Many people were shocked when they saw him.
His appearance was so damaged he did not look like a man;
his form was so changed they could barely tell he was human.
But now he will surprise many nations.
Kings will be amazed and shut their mouths.
They will see things they had not been told about him,
and they will understand things they had not heard.”
Who would have believed what we heard?
Who saw the Lord’s power in this?
He grew up like a small plant before the Lord,
like a root growing in a dry land.
He had no special beauty or form to make us notice him;
there was nothing in his appearance to make us desire him.
He was hated and rejected by people.
He had much pain and suffering.
People would not even look at him.
He was hated, and we didn’t even notice him.
But he took our suffering on him
and felt our pain for us.
We saw his suffering
and thought God was punishing him.
But he was wounded for the wrong we did;
he was crushed for the evil we did.
The punishment, which made us well, was given to him,
and we are healed because of his wounds.
We all have wandered away like sheep;
each of us has gone his own way.
But the Lord has put on him the punishment
for all the evil we have done.
He was beaten down and punished,
but he didn’t say a word.
He was like a lamb being led to be killed.
He was quiet, as a sheep is quiet while its wool is being cut;
he never opened his mouth.
Men took him away roughly and unfairly.
He died without children to continue his family.
He was put to death;
he was punished for the sins of my people.
He was buried with wicked men,
and he died with the rich.
He had done nothing wrong,
and he had never lied.
But it was the Lord who decided
to crush him and make him suffer.
The Lord made his life a penalty offering,
but he will still see his descendants and live a long life.
He will complete the things the Lord wants him to do.
“After his soul suffers many things,
he will see life and be satisfied.
My good servant will make many people right with God;
he will carry away their sins.
For this reason I will make him a great man among people,
and he will share in all things with those who are strong.
He willingly gave his life
and was treated like a criminal.
But he carried away the sins of many people
and asked forgiveness for those who sinned.” (NCV)
We all suffer. In some way, whether a chronic physical condition, emotional or moral distress, mental illness, or spiritual oppression, everyone faces living in a fallen world with its pain and heartache. Presently, the entire world is suffering the scourge of the COVID-19 virus. Every person in my neighborhood, city, state, and nation is impacted and affected. Not only do many suffer because of disease and death itself, all are enduring either lost wages, limitations, loneliness or more. Suffering that seems to have no reason, the senseless kind, the type where nothing good appears to be going on at all can be very troubling to our souls.
Perhaps it seems ironic, maybe even cruel, that Christians would observe a day called “Good” Friday. Considering the hard circumstances of so many people, to call today “good” appears awkward, as if Christ’s followers have their heads in the sand. Even for Christians, at first glance, “Good Friday” might seem a oxymoronic for a day observing the torture and death of an innocent man. Some would argue that Christ is no longer on the cross and we need to give all our focus on the resurrected Jesus and the victory he achieved. No need for all this suffering stuff. Yet, the Resurrection only has meaning because of this very day, Good Friday. Without the Suffering Servant of Isaiah, there is no King Jesus. For Christians everywhere, this day is very good in the sense that the crucifixion of Jesus Christ means the redemption of the world. On this day we remember and commemorate the events that led up to the cross; unpack those events and interpret them with profound meaning and significance; and, worship Jesus with heartfelt gratitude because of his redeeming work of the cross.
This stained-glass window was donated to the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church of Birmingham, Alabama by the people of Wales after the church was bombed in 1963.
The bulk of the New Testament Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are given over to the final week of Christ’s life, especially leading to the cross. Good Friday observances often take a somber form due to the brevity of Christ’s experience on the cross. Christians remember the last words of Christ, and recognize the significant impact his death had on the immediate persons around him. Believers also contemplate the lasting results of that singular death as an atoning sacrifice; perfect love; reconciliation between God and humanity; victory over evil; and, redeeming all creation.
Sadness, then, is far from the only emotive expression on this day. It is appropriate to feel wonder, gratitude, and deep satisfaction for the accomplishment of deliverance from the power of sin. There is the recognition that something profound and meaningful has truly happened in the egregious suffering of Jesus. Thus, we not only remember the anguish of Christ, but what that horrible torment accomplished. In fact, the cross of Jesus is so significant that an eternity of considering its import and impact could never plumb the depths of its far-reaching effects.
With all that has been said, one would think that Good Friday is a hugely observed day on the Christian Calendar. Yet, for a chunk of churches and Christians, it’s not. The bottom line is that the cross is not popular. Maybe it’s because neither Christian nor non-Christian wants to ponder something that appears so icky and bloody.
Episcopal priest Fleming Rutledge has adroitly put her finger on the issue: “Religious people want visionary experiences and spiritual uplift; secular people want proofs, arguments, demonstrations, philosophy, and science. The striking fact is that neither one of these groups wants to hear about the cross.” Indeed, as the Apostle Paul has said, the cross of Christ is “a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles” (1 Corinthians 1:23).
A personalized religion which leaves the cross out of the picture (too much blood and violence) might seem appealing yet will only leave us bereft of the communion of the saints both past and present. Consider the ancient witness of the Church:
“I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord… he suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended to hell.” –Apostles’ Creed
“For our sake he [Christ] was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried.” –Nicene Creed
Christ suffered “in both body and soul – in such a way that when he sensed the horrible punishment required by our sins ‘his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground.’ He cried, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ And he endured all this for the forgiveness of our sins. Therefore, we rightly say with the Apostle Paul that we know nothing ‘except Jesus Christ, and him crucified;’ we ‘regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus our Lord.’ We find all comforts in his wounds and have no need to seek or invent any other means than this one and only sacrifice, once made, which renders believers perfect forever.” –Belgic Confession, Article 21
And let us consider further the New Testament witness:
“Jesus suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, and bear the abuse he endured.” (Hebrews 13:12-13, NIV)
“May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” (Galatians 6:14, NRSV)
The extent of Good Friday goes far beyond just a day on the calendar; it is the fulcrum upon which all of Christianity hinges. Because Christ suffered, our suffering has meaning. Each situation of trauma; every case of disease; all adversity and wholesale hard circumstances make sense, in the Christian tradition, when they are viewed in solidarity with Jesus Christ crucified. So, today, let Christians everywhere contemplate the cross, observe the salvation accomplished through Christ’s death, and offer prayers and petitions for those who need deliverance from the power of evil. In short, let us worship God in Jesus Christ because of the suffering on the cross.
Along with all believers everywhere we pray:
Jesus, Lamb of God, have mercy on us.
Jesus, Bearer of our sins, have mercy on us.
Jesus, Redeemer of the world, grant us your peace. Amen.
Click Were You There performed by The Vigil Project as we station ourselves near the cross.
Rev. Tim Ehrhardt 