This is what happens to “trumped up” messiahs. This is what happens to people who rock the boat. This is what happens to those who threaten the establishment. This is what happens to those who lift up the poor and broken-hearted. This is what happens to those who choose the way of love. Christ’s last words from the Cross, the shout “tetelestai” (“It is finished”) had seemed to mean “it’s all over”. Jesus’s life had ended, so it seemed, in ignominious defeat.
But it was a cry of victory: “It is done! It is accomplished!” So what had seemed to be finished had for them only just begun. The risen Jesus sends them back to Galilee, where it had all started, and they have to relearn it all in the light of Easter.
So the fearful became fearless. They and those who came after them would stand before emperors. They would brave the lions. They would travel to the ends of the world, driven by the fire burning within them, the message that Christ is risen, showing that God is love.
A “Happy Easter” is not going to resolve the crises of today. It is joy we need, surprising, transforming joy. The joy that floods and overflows. like a dark room that’s suddenly flooded with light. The joy that is found in knowing forgiveness of past wrongs, life in the present and hope for the future. This is Easter joy.