'Be eager to proclaim to others: ‘It is true! The Lord has risen!’ - Bishop John's Easter message

While creation around us erupts with new life, so too are we now passing from the wintry days of Lent to the joyful spring of Eastertide. Creation itself seems to sing alongside us ‘Jesus Christ is risen today’.

This week, we’ll focus once again on the hard work he does over those six days, culminating in his declaration ‘It is finished’ as he dies on the cross. The work of his suffering and death will then give way to the Sabbath rest of Holy Saturday before we encounter the risen Jesus in the garden of his New Creation. Because of the Empty Tomb, we can look forward to the day when this world is transformed into a deep and abiding springtime. And by recalling the Easter story and Jesus’ earlier ministry, we can see how we can be the first buds of new creation’s springtime in our own lives and ministries. In this way, we can in fellowship with each other reveal to the world that ‘Jesus Christ is risen indeed.’

If there’s anything we lack today as a Church, it’s the confidence to proclaim that new life to a sceptical world. In his talk at our recent clergy synod, Jeremy Duff recalled us to the Gospel of Jesus Christ that both saves and empowers. God doesn’t expect us to manufacture the confidence and willpower to proclaim that Gospel: he gives us his grace and fills us with his love. I hope in the coming week, all of us will linger long enough with him so that like the disciples in Emmaus we can afterwards declare: ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?’ With hearts so inflamed, like Cleopas and his companion, we’ll be eager to proclaim to others: ‘It is true! The Lord has risen!’

God bless and a joyful Easter to you all,