Easter Message, Nick Andrewes

It seems strange to be writing to you in Holy Week, when most of you won’t read this until Easter, or afterwards.

This week we recall the events of the week before Jesus’ death: his last words to his disciples in the upper room; his passion; his betrayal, denial and desertion by his disciples; his death on the cross. On Sunday we celebrate Christ’s resurrection from the dead. We celebrate the victorious hope of Easter. We celebrate the gift of life to us in Christ Jesus. We celebrate the reconciliation of the disciples to Christ and to each other. Their recreation as a new community to serve Christ in the world by the power of the resurrection. Their recreation and ours. Their reconciliation and ours. The contrast could not be more extreme!

And yet …

… it is the one Christ at the centre of all these events.

At St. Paul’s this year, at the service on Easter Eve, we shall be putting together our Easter or Paschal Candle. The candle comes with a transfer of a Cross that will be attached to the candle. But at the service on Easter Eve, we will inscribe the candle with the Alpha and the Omega, symbols of the beginning and the end of time. But we will also put nails into the candle. And these nails will remain in the candle through the season of Easter and throughout the next year, just as Christ carries the wounds of his crucifixion, the memory and reality of his death, for all eternity.

As we all know the candle is a symbol of the presence of the Risen Christ in our services, our lives, and our world. But this candle is marked with nails. Christ did not rise away from death, suffering, agony, and isolation. He rose with them. His body still bears the scars of all that he went through.

It was this that Thomas found so compelling. He would not believe unless he put his fingers in the scars on Jesus’ hands. It was not enough to see Jesus alive again: Thomas needed to see that the one who was alive was the very one who had suffered. On one level it was this that enabled him to believe: the power of Almighty God which did not overcome pain, suffering, and death by denying them or eliminating them, but by transforming them.

And maybe this gave Thomas, and gives all of us, the strength to discover the present reality of Christ in the struggles and difficulties we face. Yes, we can draw comfort from the fact that Christ has experienced these things already. But we can also draw comfort from the fact that these things are present realities for the Risen Christ who accompanies us through the ups and downs of our

journeys through life.

yours in Christ

Nick