April 5, 2026, Easter: Love Rises

First Gospel Reading            Luke 23: 32-47 (page 919)
Second Gospel Reading       Matthew 28: 1-10 (page 865)               

My meditations during this Holy Week have centered on the words and actions of Jesus as he headed towards the cross. First he rides into Jerusalem for the Passover on a colt that had never been ridden before, the sign of a prince entering into a city with peaceful intentions. He is greeted as royalty but except for riding rather than walking, he does not act like royalty. He makes no speech but leaves for Bethany to get some rest. Remember that he had told his disciples where to find the colt and what to say and it came about exactly as he said. 

Jesus spent the rest of that week until Passover in the Temple teaching. He was constantly questioned by those in power who saw his triumphant entry into Jerusalem, knew he was a threat and wanted to get rid of him. As we hear in Luke 19:47 “Every day he was teaching in the Temple. The chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people kept looking for a way to kill him; but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were spellbound by what they heard.” 

Jesus turned the chief priests and leaders’ questions back on them and continued teaching. 

And then we come to the Passover, what we call Maundy Thursday and again Jesus sends two disciples out to find the guest room where they will have their Passover meal and they find everything exactly as Jesus had told them. He shares a meal with his closest friends, washing their feet as a servant would emphasizing that, “If I, your Lord and teacher have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example.” (John 13:14-15) Jesus emphasizes being humble and caring for one another, knowing the disciples will need to support one another to continue his mission after he is gone. 

After their meal, later that night Jesus went off with his disciples to the Mount of Olives to pray. He went a stones throw away from his disciples to speak to God and Luke tells us in 22:42 that Jesus prayed, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me; yet not my will but yours be done.” And when he prayed this an angel appeared and strengthened him. 

It’s a good thing the angel showed up because the disciples, overwhelmed by everything that was happening even though they did not understand it, had fallen asleep.

Then Judas shows up and we know what happens there. He betrays Jesus with a kiss and after a scuffle where a disciple cuts off one of the captor’s ears, Jesus,  says, “No more of this” to his disciples and heals the man. The Prince of Peace chastised his captors for coming with weapons when they saw him every day but he healed one anyway and left peacefully although a captive. 

All that night Jesus was mocked and beaten by his captors and he endured. In the morning, he was questioned by the chief priests, “Are you then the Son of God? ‘You say that I am,” he answered (Luke 22:70). 

He is brought before the Roman Governor Pilate who asks, “Are you the King of the Jews? ‘You say so,’ Jesus replies (Luke 23:3). He is brought before Herod but does not respond to his questions. He endured. 

Pilate cannot find Jesus guilty so he washes his hands literally and figuratively of this case and gives into the people’s will to have him crucified. Jesus carries his own instrument of torture, the cross, that he will be nailed to as his friends and disciples follow weeping.


And as Jesus is nailed to the cross to die, he prays saying, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). The soldiers continue to mock him, as does one of the two criminals being hung with him. The other, however, recognizes Jesus, his teachings and his innocence, and says, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus replies, ‘Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23: 42-43).

So let’s review:

Jesus healed a captor who lost an ear when a disciple tried to defend Jesus. 

Jesus asked God to forgive those who beat, mocked, and ultimately killed him. 

Jesus forgave a criminal who sought forgiveness and invited him to come that day with him to Paradise.

The power that Jesus held was the power of love over hate even unto an enemy, the power of inclusion over exclusion, the power of forgiveness for mistakes, even extreme ones. No wonder the authorities saw Jesus as a threat, this was a very different kind of power that they could not compete with: Love. 

So Jesus lived for three hours nailed to a cross before dying. In a way this was a mercifully short period of time, people normally took 24-36 hours to die in this way or even longer. It was pure, cruel, torture. 

It is what Jesus says just before dying that I have really been pondering these last few days and it was actually not in our reading today. Our reading from Luke has Jesus say, “Father into your hands I commend my spirit.” This line feels comforting, it is an “I am coming home, God” line. But in Matthew 27:46 Jesus says, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Then the soldiers give him sour wine on a sponge to drink and he cries out again and dies. 

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” If we are honest, haven’t we all had a moment or maybe two where we have questioned if God has abandoned us? A time when we are in so much pain, feel so lost that we think God is not listening to us, must have deserted us? 

To me this line, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” shows Jesus’ true humanity. What can be more human than having doubt and feeling lost at some point? Imagine how much pain Jesus was in to have uttered this?

I really think this line is for us. Jesus knew he would rise again. Jesus knew God had not forsaken him. But Jesus was fully human as well as fully divine and we humans have those moments where we feel that God has forgotten about us don’t we, if we are honest with ourselves? 

I think that Jesus was giving us permission to acknowledge those very real feelings and then to learn to wait for love to rise, for God to show God’s self in our lives in some way, even if it is a different way from what we expected, from what we hoped. 

Remember that when Jesus prayed just before he was captured he said,  “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me; yet not my will but yours be done.” That was Jesus’ humanity shining through as well wasn’t it? Wouldn’t we all rather not have to suffer, not have to do difficult things?

Jesus showed us that to have doubts, to not want to do hard things is to be human. But he also showed us that we can do hard things, we can survive our doubts, difficulties, pain, and sorrow. We can endure because God suffers with us through the trials of our lives. God loves us through our challenges and our doubts. God walks with us as we carry all the crosses that life gives us, lifting up our load to make it a little lighter and giving us the hope and promise of resurrection whether it is a resurrection from this current problem or the resurrection of peace and love that comes at the end of our time as humans on earth. 

God is love and love will always rise above mockery, above doubt, above prejudice, above hate, above pain, and above human created boundaries. Love reaches out in surprising ways to lift us up. Love cannot be locked in a tomb. 

The stone was rolled back, the angel appeared to the women and said, ‘Do not be afraid, Love has risen.’ Then Love itself appeared before the women and repeated, ‘Do not be afraid, I am here, tell the others that they will see me too.”

Love has not forsaken us. Love is alive and well. As Paul reminds us, “Love is patient; love is kind, love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.” (1 Corinthians 13: 4-8).

Love is risen; Love is risen indeed! Alleluia! Amen

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