Happy Easter! Jesus is risen! He’s alive!

What do you think about when you think about Easter? Bunnies? Chicks? Hiding Easter eggs in the back yard? Flowers?  Baskets full of jelly beans and chocolate bunnies? Getting dressed up to come to church? What’s Easter really all about?

God sent Jesus to earth so that he help people find their way back to God. Jesus died on the cross as the sacrifice for our sins. At the end, when Jesus dies, he said “it is finished,” but he didn't just mean his life. He meant the work that he came to do was finished. Jesus came to die for us, and he succeeded in his mission. When he was taken down from the cross and placed everyone thought that was the end of the story.

Then on Sunday, some of Jesus’ friends went to visit the tomb. When they got there, it was empty. There was no body to visit. Mary did not understand what had happened. Jesus is alive! Jesus rose from the dead. He overcame sin and death. Then he came to some of his followers the week after he died, and didn’t believe they were really seeing him. They didn’t understand.

Faith is like that. It’s hard to believe in something sometimes, when we can’t see it with our own eyes or touch it  with our own hands.

When Jesus first comes to them, the disciples are afraid. They are afraid because of what had happened to Jesus, which must have been pretty scary. And, then, they were even more scared because they didn’t understand what was happening with Jesus and his resurrection. But, because they let Jesus breathe the Holy Spirit into them, their fear was replaced with something much, much better.

The same thing is true for us today. Even when awful, scary, bad things happen to us, we don’t need to be filled with fear of these events.

This is happiness. This is good news. This is Easter.

 Miss Julie said the other day that I must be auditioning to replace Snoopy as the Easter Beagle, because I was getting all excited about Easter at St. Mark’s! And I am. It makes me happy to see my friends and enjoy a yummy pancake breakfast  then go look for Easter eggs outside and then put pretty flowers on the cross in the sanctuary. 

Easter Sunday is a very happy celebration of rebirth and of hope. Our savior Jesus died to make up  for all the bad things that have happened in the world. Jesus also wanted to bring people closer to their God again, and this he accomplished with Easter. 

Soooo.. We know what Easter is about, but I bet you don’t know what eggs and bunnies have to do with it! They were not in the Bible story! But I can explain. I am a reporter, you know! Check it out!