I saw the passion of the Christ again yesterday and boy, for the first time I finished it.
One Specific part I loved was when Mary came to hold him while he bore the cross, and he told her "Mother, See, I make all things new".
There is a hush that falls over the world in those sacred moments between crucifixion and resurrection - a breathless pause where all creation held still, waiting. We live now in the glorious aftermath of that divine interruption, where death itself was unmade.
The authorities thought they had contained the truth. Roman seals on the tomb, armed guards standing watch, the full might of empire deployed to silence one inconvenient miracle. They paid witnesses to lie, spread rumors of stolen bodies, did everything in their power to extinguish this truth. But some fires cannot be put out.
I think often of those first witnesses - the women who came at dawn, their spices prepared for burial, their hearts heavy with grief. What shock must have coursed through them when they found the stone rolled away! What terror and joy must have warred within them as the angel spoke: "He is not here. He is risen."
This is the axis upon which all history turns. The manger in Bethlehem only matters because of the empty tomb in Jerusalem. Christmas finds its meaning in Easter. Without the resurrection, Jesus would be just another failed revolutionary, his birth long forgotten. But the empty tomb changes everything.
When Jesus walked out of that grave, He didn't just prove His divinity - He shattered every chain that bound us. The resurrection is God's great "Yes" to all His promises. In that moment:
- Every prophecy was fulfilled
- Every sin was atoned for
- Death itself died
The early Church understood this. They didn't celebrate Easter as a single day, but as the reality they lived in every moment - a perpetual Easter, where resurrection life pulsed through their veins. They were people of the empty tomb, bearing witness to a King who could not be contained by death.
This is our inheritance. The same power that raised Christ from the dead now lives in us. The same victory He won is ours to walk in. The same truth that terrified the Roman Empire is ours to proclaim.
Let us then live as resurrection people - our voices unshackled, our hearts unafraid, our lives a testament to the unkillable truth:
He is risen.
And because He lives, we too shall live.
