Christ is Risen

Everyone looks at the Easter event through the rear view mirror.  This is true even of the women who went to the tomb of Jesus on the morning of resurrection.   When they hurried back to find the disciples, they went not with a witness to the resurrection of Jesus, but with a witness to the empty tomb.  From the very beginning the resurrection of Jesus had to be spoken of as something that had happened.  No one spoke of being an eye witness to the event itself.  It may well be that there were Roman soldiers who stayed the night watching and guarding the tomb, but there is nothing in the Word which would point to them being eye witnesses to the moment things exploded with resurrection power there at the place of death.    

It has been that way since the first evening on the day of resurrection and it continues to be this way for us.  We look at the resurrection of Jesus not as something which is happening, but as something which has happened.  Our view is of something which is in the past.  It is interesting that the traditional liturgical Easter greeting is "Christ is Risen."  And the response is, "He is risen, indeed."   No one uses the past tense.  No one says, "Christ has Risen."   Even though it is as an event always seen as something behind us, we speak of it in the present tense as if it is happening in the moment.     

Or, maybe given the nuances of the English tenses it is a way of acknowledging that Christ lives not as one who belongs to history's past, but as one who belongs to all that is in the present moment.  Our lives are forever changed because the man of the cross lives in a risen realm in the current moment.  As the old gospel song declares, "He lives...you ask me how I know He lives, He lives within my heart."  When the Spirit worked to raise Jesus from the dead, the power of that darkness was shattered so that the light that has shined from the beginning of creation will shine and shine and shine and live forevermore.