Whiteboard: The Not So Secret Easter Greeting

Easter is more than a Sunday, it is an entire season in the life of the church!

It is a time when we celebrate the power of resurrection and the blessing of new life.

It is a time when we hear once more the resurrection accounts from Holy Scripture and celebrate that through the Risen Christ we know the fullness of God's mercy, love, and grace.

On Easter Sunday and throughout the Easter Season we are used to giving a certain of greeting, a special, responsive turn of phrase that we typically only use during this time of year. A leader calls out "Christ is Risen!" and the congregation in one voice responds, "Christ is Risen indeed!"

It is a powerful, joyful affirmation of faith and a beautiful declaration of Easter's power.

But this Sunday, I'll be preaching about a different Easter Greeting. A Not-So-Secret Easter Greeting, that nonetheless sneaks up on us. Those words of greeting come from the Risen Christ himself and are revealed to us in our scripture reading from Luke 24:36-48. See if you can find that Not-So-Secret Easter Greeting that is waiting for us in the text (hint: It is illustrated right there on the Whiteboard image at the top of this post too!) and don't be afraid to use it this Sunday (and every Sunday!) as your testimony to the power (and peace!) of the Risen Christ.

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Luke 24:36-48 Jesus Appears to His Disciples

While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’ They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost. He said to them, ‘Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.’ And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, ‘Have you anything here to eat?’ They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate in their presence.

Then he said to them, ‘These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.’ Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnessesof these things.