ON Easter Sunday nearly two thousand years ago, Jesus astonished His friends and enemies by conquering death and walking out of the place where He had been entombed. In the fragrant, peaceful garden where His beloved body had been laid in the family tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, Jesus dramatically proved for all time that the forces of faith and life must ultimately overcome death and evil.
To those who came to the tomb seeking the body of Jesus, the truth revealed on that first Easter morning must have been infinitely beautiful. What a comfort it must have been to their grieving hearts to hear the miraculous message: "He is not here; for he is risen, as he said."
The words of the angel must have recalled to Jesus' friends some previous occasions when He had sought to make them understand His power to overcome death. They had failed to comprehend His meaning when He raised Lazarus from the dead and proclaimed: "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die."
Jesus, the man of Nazareth, was so much aware of His divine Sonship that He never doubted His authority as the Christ, nor ever questioned His power to emerge from a temporary prison and fulfill His promises of immortality.
It is the glorious privilege of every person to realize, as Jesus did, the power of divine Sonship, to be quickened by the Christ Spirit and made eternally alive by His life and light within. Jesus did not wait until after His crucifixion and resurrection experience to declare the power and indestructibility of His Christ Spirit. Long before that first shining Easter morning He had prophesied, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."
Today, centuries later, the resurrection of Jesus challenges us to affirm and express the same renewing, liberating, transforming power that enabled Him to rise to victorious life.
Every day can be Easter for us, a day of triumph and overcoming, if we step up our faith and grow in the consciousness of Christ's eternal presence within. Our immortality began with the first breath of God's Spirit into the first man, and has never been removed from us. We find our fulfillment in bringing forth the Christ. Every day we are resurrected into new life and joy as we emulate Him.
Every time we pray our thoughts are lifted, our faith is renewed, our understanding of the Christ power within is increased. It is in this time of inner resurrection that mind and heart are assured of supply for every need. We see lack giving way to abundance, imperfection giving way to wholeness, chaos giving way to order, doubt giving way to the peace that comes when we know that we can depend on the Christ for help.
A true sense of resurrection is ours every time we express love instead of animosity, forgiveness instead of revenge, strength instead of weakness. Every thought of health and wholeness brings resurrection to mind and body. Every new beginning after failure is a kind of resurrection.
The Easter story is personalized, individualized in us each time we rise out of the darkness of doubt into the light of faith. Just as Jesus' resurrection was a culmination of His faith and the power of His Father working through Him, so our own resurrection is a progressive overcoming as we journey toward the full Christ consciousness.
As the Easter season unfolds it brings with it the joy that lifts the spirit, the wonder that fills the heart with the radiant beauty of the Christ presence, the light that leads every person to victorious living. Rejoice and know that this Easter is bringing you light and joy and fulfillment.
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