Hennie Symington

“I have wanted so much to eat this Passover meal with you before I suffer! For I tell you, I will never eat it until it is given its full meaning in the Kingdom of God.” Luke 22:15

Traditionally Easter is a time to go on a journey – not to the seaside, the game reserve or to the mountains but an inner journey where you follow the passion of Christ step by step as if you were there witnessing the incredible pathos of Jesus’ last moments with his disciples, his betrayal, torture and death. It is a journey crucial to you as a believer because Easter, more than any other Christian celebration, is the one which fundamentally changes and renews us.

Become part of the passion of Christ by celebrating Easter with passion – not as an outsider but as a deeply engaged participant. Place yourself in an upper room somewhere in Jerusalem 2 014 years ago where Jesus celebrated the Passover meal for the last time with his disciples before experiencing the agony of deceit and denial from those who were closest to him.

On Good Friday we mourn as does all of creation, the death of the Creator when all of nature shuddered in horror and all of creation waited in expectation. Between Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday when of all of creation was figuratively speaking, suspended between heaven and hell in quiet prayer and meditation, think about Jesus’ traversing the journey through from life to death for no other reason than to restore our lives. His journey from death into life makes it possible for you to rise up and live. Therefore, rise up and rejoice with all of creation shouting out your Easter greeting: "Christ is risen. Yes, he is truly risen!”

Prayer: Oh Lord, if your death and resurrection remain but a moving tableau between the pages of an ancient book, then you will have died for nought. Breathe your breath into my desiccated life so that I can arise and live anew. Amen