Easter Peace

“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will to men.” (Luke 2:14)

These are the words that the angels used to introduce the infant Jesus to the world through the shepherds. They are the words of blessing that are fulfilled some thirty three years later on the day of the resurrection of that tiny person grown into a man. The fulfillment follows his brutal crucifixion in Jerusalem. Easter is the fulfillment of the angels’ words. It is the glory of the risen Lord, offering real eternal life to every believing soul. It is a glorious, completely new, though prophesied, reality on the planet earth. It is the life of God Himself shared abundantly with human beings through the one human being who was announced by God’s angels.

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you: not as the world gives , give I to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” (John 14:27) The peace of the angels was poured into infant Jesus through his mother, and he in turn poured peace into the hearts of troubled human beings. Jesus’ resurrection was the fulfillment of the angels’ song. It was the delivery of peace, and with peace, hope for all human kind: that eternal life , which we could not attain, had been attained for our limited selves in unlimited abundance. Jesus came to give this life to all who would receive him.

William Wordsworth wrote, “The world is too much with us; Late and soon, getting and spending, we lay waste our powers . . .” Jesus laid down all his powers, which are infinite, and opened infinity to human beings who have a tendency to waste there finite powers. In the resurrection, Jesus opened the locked doors of our wasted times. He gave his own Holy Spirit to accompany us through our mortal lives, no longer wasted, but full of the very peace of God. In the evening of his arrest Jesus told his disciples, “I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. . .Take heart! I have overcome the world!” ( John 16:33)

Joy and peace on this Resurrection Day!

Happy, Happy Easter!

Love in Him,

Prue