The celebration of Easter, in all of the different ways that we do it, is wonderful and important for our understanding of God, and of life.
It matters that we celebrate Easter with the whole range of emotion, experience and hope that Easter involves.
It matters that we pause to recognise the realities of injustice, sin and death.
On Good Friday, we recognise the death of a person – a person who, like so many others before and since, did not deserve the death they experienced.
On the way to his death, we recognise the injustice of Jesus’ betrayal and trial; the kind of injustice that mars societies around the world and throughout time. It matters that we see that even Jesus is affected by injustice.
We are wonderfully and beautifully made, but society stacks the cards. Efforts to overcome intergenerational injustice through intentional efforts of inclusion face obstruction and uncertainty, which leaves us all the poorer.
Sometimes we are the victims; sometimes we are complicit; it matters that we recognise the inequalities, and how we are all damaged. We all fall short of the glory of God.
When Jesus was betrayed, he did not turn to violence or betray his steadfast love and grace for all people, even for those who turned away from him. He took it on himself.
1700 years ago this year, the Council of the Worldwide Church affirmed that in Jesus we see both true humanity and true divinity. In Jesus’ steadfast love, even in the face of death, we are seeing both humanity and divinity; we see God’s love for us, and God’s experience of death.
It matters that the story doesn’t end there. There is a new beginning.
Jesus’ first disciples encounter his resurrection; meaningful hope is born; and we are invited to know forgiveness, purpose and hope as we navigate the challenges of this world.
It matters that sin and death are not the end; that God’s promises invite us to faith, to hope, and to dare to love, for the sake of the world that God loves.
Does it matter, then, how we respond?
As we celebrate Easter and hold onto the Easter hope, may God’s love, faithfulness and grace be with you, and the Spirit of God lead you into life in the name of the risen Christ. Amen.
The Moderator’s Easter video message can be found here
