Resurrection Sunday or Easter Sunday is the most important day of the church calendar. It is the Sunday that sets all Sundays apart as a day to worship God. The first century Christians rejoiced that Jesus had risen from the dead on the first day of the week and celebrated his death, burial, and resurrection every Sunday after that. Every Easter Sunday they would proclaim this truth to one another with a traditional Easter greeting saying, “He is risen;” and answering with, “He is risen indeed!”
On the morning of the resurrection there were many who wished to dispute the resurrection so that they might justify the execution of Jesus and continue in their disregard for the man who is God in the flesh. Yet, no one, at that time, or in the centuries to follow, was able to produce his body. He is alive, alive, alive forevermore. In this culture that finds it so hard to believe in miracles it is important that we continue to proclaim the miracle of the resurrection. In a world that describes the awesome creation of the universe as a chance occurrence, we must speak another word. In a world that sees molecules, atoms, quarks, and Higgs Bosons but cannot see the miracle of how it all holds together in such a way that sustains life, consciousness, and free will, we must announce the miracle of life and the miracle of new life that flows out of the resurrection. Jesus is the new man, the first born of creation. We may follow after him into a new life, a new step in the development of humankind. He is risen! He is risen indeed!