“Easter is the most hopeful day in the Christian year – a day we celebrate Christ’s resurrection and the incomparable news that death never has the last word! Not for Jesus. Not for us…God’s promises are true, and we can trust them in the darkest valley,” begins Carla Pratt Keyes, pastor of Ginter Park Presbyterian Church in Richmond, Virginia. She continues, “Easter begins in the valley of the shadow of death, amidst grief and trauma. I don’t want to rush past that. The Bible doesn’t rush past that! And…this year especially, you and I recognize the anguish experienced by Christ’s disciples around his death.” In today’s passage from Luke 24:1-12, the women approach the tomb and find Jesus’s body is gone. They are perplexed and terrified, but they are reminded of the good news and the power of Easter. Jesus is alive and in our midst. He is active, at work in more places and in more ways than we can imagine.
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