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SCRIPTURE READINGS:
ACTS 10:34-43
1 CORINTHIANS 15:19-26
LUKE 24:1-12

EASTER SUNDAY REFLECTION

Christ’s victory over death is the theme for our reflection. The greatest enemy of human beings is death. Death ends our lives and relationship with our beloved ones on earth. It is refreshing and delightful to know that Christ overcame the greatest enemy of every living creature, death. We shall reflect on the fact that Without Christ’s victory over death, our salvation will be meaningless and incomplete.

Beloved in the Lord, our salvation will be meaningless and incomplete if Christ’s body had remained in the tomb. Paul explains this fact to the Corinthians in the second Scripture reading when He wrote, “if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.” (1 Corinthians 15:17-19). Praise be to God that our faith or salvation has been made complete through Jesus’s victory over death.

The evidence of Christ’s victory over death is found in the third Scripture reading, Luke 24:1-12. We are told that “… on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.” And they remembered his words,” (Luke 24:1-8). After His resurrection and ascension, Peter and the other Apostles who were filled with the Holy Spirit preached to the crowd about Jesus. Peter reaffirmed the Christ’s victory over death when he said, ““We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a cross, ⁴⁰ but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen. ⁴¹ He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen—by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. ⁴² He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. ⁴³ All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.” (Acts 10:39-43). Peter’s reaffirmation gives us the assurance that without Jesus overcoming death through His resurrection our faith is meaningless and incomplete.  We are to rejoice and be filled with gratitude because “… He (Jesus) must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For “God has put all things in subjection under his feet.” (1 Corinthians 15:24-27). In other words, Christ has already overcome death through His resurrection from the dead, death no longer has power over us. When Jesus returns the second time to judge and grant us eternal life, death will be forever destroyed. It is for this reason Jesus told Mary, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he dies, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26).

Dear friend in Christ we must complete offer our lives to Jesus as living Sacrifice because our faith and salvation is meaningful and complete through through. Paul admonished us ” I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. ² Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is —his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12:1-2) Yes, our response to the Lord for rending our faith and salvation active through His resurrection is to surrender our lives to Him and serve until our last moments on earth. We must offer our time, life, energy and wealth in as our gratitude or appreciation for saving us and making us the Children of God.

In summary beloved in the Lord, Christ’s victory over death has completed our faith and salvation.May the Holy Spirit strengthen us to live victorious lives in Jesus Christ so that when He comes the second time to destroy death we shall be partakers of His gift of eternal life. Amen