Easter is not the most poetic Christian holiday of the year, nor is it the most widely celebrated. Christmas takes the distinction on both those counts. But Easter is the most important day of the year, dare I say, the most important day in history. For me, unlike Christmas, there is no 'one way' I celebrate Easter. I know, shocking... thirty-some odd Easters and I don't have a right way yet. There are years that I observe lent, and years I don't. Years that I attend church on Thursday, Friday and Sunday, and years I only get there on Sunday. There are years that I am greeted with He is Risen! followed by He is Risen Indeed! and a hearty rendition of "Christ the Lord is Risen todaaay, Haaaaaaaaaleluiah!". There have been years I've been to Easter Vigil and times I've gotten up for sunrise service. Sometimes it's 30 degrees and others it's 90 (and that's just in Michigan!). I've spent Easter Sunday in the Detroit area, in Holland (MI), Prague, Buenos Aires, and now Bangkok.
But one thing that strikes me across all the different settings and services and menus and temperatures is an awe that death has been defeated. That truth and justice and righteousness have won. I am one of those terrible people who reads the last page of a book, just to make sure that it all ends well before I start reading. With Harry Potter in particular, I needed to know that the right team was going to win. If I were a Lord of the Rings fan, I'm sure I'd be the same way with those.
You see, I can handle the battles, the ups and downs, the scars and struggles and wins and losses, as long as I know that in the end, Light is going to win, that when it's all said and done Darkness will be defeated. Easter is both the turning point of history, and the end of the story, the last page in the book. When Christ rose from the dead, Darkness lost. When Christ rose, justice was restored, the world was made right.
What we're living right now, these days of triumph and tragedy, of trials and temptations and turbulence, these are the pages of the book. And they can be scary pages indeed. But I keep reading, they are worth reading, because I have had a glimpse at the last page, because I have seen that these moments are worth living because Righteousness Reigns and evil is defeated once and for all. The beauty of Easter is that the defeat is tense-less: it is past and present and future. Christ rose over 2000 years ago, he is risen today, and he will come again to rule in all his splendor and majesty. The beauty of Easter is that it is the moment in time that makes all the other moments worth living.
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