The angel said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said.’ (Matthew 28:5-6)
Easter Day is a day for celebration: Jesus has risen from the dead. The first Easter Day started with confusion and fear, however, but then lead to great joy. The women who see the empty tomb leave with joy to tell Jesus’ disciples that he is alive. How can we have that joy? What does it mean to be filled with joy because of Easter?
This took place to fulfil what was spoken through the prophet: ‘Say to Daughter Zion, “See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”’ (Matthew 21:4-5)
This Sunday is usually called Palm Sunday, because we remember Jesus entering Jerusalem greeted as if he were a king. Cloaks are laid on the ground for his donkey to walk on, palm branches are waved in the air to mark his entry.
What kind of king is this? What will happen to him next? What should we make of all this?
Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. (1 Corinthians 5:8)
Paul’s appeal to Christians is to live holy lives, as God’s holy people. Because of God’s goodness to us, Christians are to be those who live differently - we are to live according to God’s pattern, not our own.
Our approach to how we live in relationship to others, to possessions, and to God is to be different. What would that look like for us? How are we to be different? Why should we be different?
I am writing this not to shame you but to warn you as my dear children. (1 Corinthians 4:14)
This Sunday is Mothering Sunday, originally a day for people to return to their mother church. This might be their home church, cathedral, or the nearest large church. A day to recall their introduction to the Christian faith. More recently, this has become synonymous with Mother’s Day: a day to recall and celebrate the impact mothers have on our lives, and to celebrate family life.
Paul, writing to the Corinthians, describes them as his dear children. Whatever our experience of motherhood, or however Mothering Sunday might make us feel, Christians are part of a family, with a perfect, heavenly, Father who provides for us. We have the church as our mother, who nurtures us in our faith, points us to our brother Jesus, and to God as our Father.
Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! You have begun to reign – and that without us! How I wish that you really had begun to reign so that we also might reign with you! (1 Corinthians 4:8)
The church in Corinth seemed to think that they had made it. They looked around at themselves and thought that they had everything God planned for them, that they had achived the pinnacle of the Christian life. The reality, however, is that they had not got there yet. It’s very easy for us to do something similar, and to think that life is good - it is, and can be, but there is so much more to come.