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| The Power of the Risen Lord He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. _________________________________________________ |
The Anglican Orthodox Church
Worldwide
Office of the Presiding Bishop
PO Box
128
Statesville, N.C. 28687
Easter, 2015 Anno Domini (In the Year of our Lord)
1 In the
end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came
Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre. 2 And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of
the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the
door, and sat upon it. 3 His countenance was
like lightning, and his raiment white as snow: 4 And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men. 5 And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye:
for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. 6 He is
not here: for he is risen,, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. 7 And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from
the dead; and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see
him: lo, I have told you. 8 And they departed
quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy; and did run to bring his
disciples word. (Matt
28:1-8)
It is futile to imagine any of
the great predetermined events of God might not have happened; but in order to
give a better appreciation for the greatest good God has ever worked for man,
let us just imagine what the consequences would have been had Mary Magdalene
and the other women gone to the
Garden Tomb and found the stone still obstructing the entrance. Suppose they
were able to find men to roll the stone away, and the body of Jesus was still
there in that Tomb. They would have been saddened, but not disappointed for
that is precisely what they had come to find. Nothing would have changed from
the Fall of Adam until today. We would still be longing for a Savior to rend
the Temple Veil and to make a way for redemption of sins of all who would find
the Golden Key (Christ).
Continuing in our illusion,
imagine Barabbas being nailed to the cross instead of Christ. Barabbas
symbolically represented all for whom Christ came and died. We, too, could
expect, like Barabbas, to be condemned to die for our sins and suffer an
eternal darkness of night. There would be no Holy Ghost to come and comfort us
in our moments of despair, nor would the world be treated to the wonderful and
powerful strains of great hymns and anthems of the Church. In fact, there would
be no churches.
There could be no comforting balm
at the moment of death in knowing that we would soon open our eyes on Jordan’s
far banks. The world would be pitiable and joyless.
But all of that is simply vain
imagination. It could never have failed to come to pass, because God had
decreed the sacrifice of His only Begotten Son for our sins before the world
was. It is even painful to think upon such a world without the promise of
Christ!
So, because of that first Easter
of 2000 years ago, we do have the privilege of a personal relationship with our
Father and our God. We do have churches, hospitals (first sponsored by the
church), orphanages, hope, love that surpasses the comprehension of the world,
glorious hymns and anthems, brothers and sister in the faith, and ……we have the
Church.
I have said these things to make
us more mindful of the meaning of Easter, of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross,
of the beauty of holiness in worship, and of the Church militant here on this
globe. Now that we are mindful of the privilege of worship and of being a part
of the Church of God, what will we do about it?
May God richly bless His people
of all nations, tribes and tongues this Easter. Remember to pray for the
suffering Christians where wicked, ungodly terrorists murder, rape and pillage.
In Christ alone at Eastertide.
Jerry L. Ogles, Presiding Bishop
The Anglican Orthodox Church Worldwide
