Happy Easter! He is risen

Surely this Easter must be the most like the very first one! Just like the disciples, hiding away frightened and confused behind locked doors, following the crucifixion of Jesus, across the world, people are once again in ‘lockdown’ waiting anxiously for the COVID-19 pandemic to come to an end.
But the story of the Resurrection is one of glory and hope, where death and fear are overcome, and I would like to tell you why I believe that Jesus did indeed rise from the dead.
Consider the disciples. They were ordinary men, frightened for their lives. Peter had even denied in public, three times, that he ever knew Jesus. Would these weak and cowardly men be the same ones who went out in to the world, travelling far and wide to bring the Gospel, and enduring awful deaths, if they had not truly seen the risen Saviour? Unless they had seen Jesus with their own eyes, what had they to gain? They almost all died in horrible ways because of their declaration that Jesus had conquered death. Wouldn’t they just have kept their heads down and their mouths shut? Only if they had truly seen the risen Lord would they have been transformed from cowering fear, to fearless ministry, taking the message of Jesus to the world.
They had nothing to gain and their very lives to lose. Only the risen Jesus could have wrought the transformation in them and he longs to do that for each one of us.
May you know the hope and peace that Jesus brings this Easter.