Hebrews 2:14b-15, 1 John 3:8b, John 20:21, and Romans 7:4b || Here’s my Easter prayer. Adapt it as needed to make it your own:

Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, As I come before you this Easter, I am overwhelmed by the magnitude of your love. The price Jesus paid for me–the suffering, the rejection, the weight of my sin upon His shoulders–leaves me humbled and in awe. When I consider what it cost Him to love me, I’m brought to my knees in gratitude. In a world filled with so much uncertainty, doubts creep in, fears arise, and I recognize my own brokenness. The darkness can sometimes feel heavy, and my weaknesses persistent. Yet even in these moments, the resurrection brings hope and life. Today, I celebrate the resurrection. I rejoice that Jesus rose in power and glory, triumphant over the grave. His victory is my living hope. Because He lives, I know that my struggles, my pain, my failures don’t have the final word in my story. Thank you for loving me enough to make a way back to you. Thank you that through Christ, I can walk in newness of life today. Help me to live the resurrection life–to embody your victory in how I love, how I serve, and how I face each day with courage and joy. Fill me with resurrection power. Let the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead bring life to every corner of my heart. May everything I do reflect the beautiful truth that in Christ, death is defeated, and love has won. With a heart full of gratitude and joy this Easter. Amen.

Mark 16:1-8, Matthew 28:5-8 || Put the eggs, bonnets, and flowers away for another year. After Easter, Jesus’ followers were mostly stunned. Had it really happened? Today’s Scripture passages were a few decades away. Even then, “Accounts of the discovery of the empty tomb sound breathless and fragmentary. The women felt ‘great fear and excitement,’ says Matthew; ‘overcome with terror and dread,’ says Mark…. the early reports seem wispy, mysterious, confused.” Yes, the early reports differ in detail. But they were all about a real event. “When we ask why such stories, so different in many ways and yet so interestingly consistent… could have come into existence so early, all the early Christians give the obvious answer: something like this is what happened, even though it was hard to describe at the time and remains mind-boggling thereafter.” The core story was true: Jesus died and now was alive again. It happened. How did that change everything? As Matthew reported, “he’s been raised from the dead, just as he said.” Jesus (as we saw in this series) expected the cross and told the disciples it would happen. But Jesus, against all so-called “common sense,” also anticipated his resurrection: “I give up my life so that I can take it up again” (John 10:17). Many people died on Roman crosses. Only one was alive three days later, and he predicted it. How does the singular nature of Jesus’ resurrection reinforce its significance?

Prayer: Lord God, people who knew and loved you said that, against all their expectations, you were fully alive again. Save me from being too smart to believe their eyewitness testimony. Amen.

John 12:28-33, 16:33, 19:28-30 || Jesus did not go to the cross discouraged, defeated by the rejection of his nation’s religious leaders. In that final week before the cross, he spoke about glory (from what Romans saw as the most humiliating death they could invent). Scholar William Barclay said, “Jesus did not mean by glorified what they understood. They meant that the subjected kingdoms of the earth would grovel before the conqueror’s feet; by glorified he meant crucified.” Jesus also said, “I have conquered the world.” About John 19:30, a pastor wrote, “I had often interpreted those words to mean that Christ was exhausted and defeated. But then I learned that in Greek the phrase is expressed in just one word: tetelestai. That word is a shout of victory announcing that a battle has been won, a mission accomplished…. God’s saving mission was finished.” Jesus’ self-giving love had defeated evil, hatred, and (in two more days) death. How does Jesus’ victory offer you hope for living? Long before Jesus’ cross, Moses asked God, “Please show me your glorious presence” (Exodus 33:18), and God “passed in front of him and proclaimed: ‘The LORD! The LORD! A God who is compassionate and merciful, very patient, full of great loyalty and faithfulness’” (Exodus 34:6). In human thought, “glory” usually means power or wealth. In what ways is God’s mercy, love, patience, and loyalty, which Jesus embodied, a superior kind of “glory”?

Prayer: Lord Jesus, you said that from the cross, you would draw all people to you. You have drawn me. Now use me to shine YOUR glory to all in my world. Amen.

Romans 5:15-21 Paul dictated this letter—cf. Romans 16:22. It has the quality of “thinking aloud” more than written prose. Scholar William Barclay said, “The thought of this passage in one sentence… would be: ‘By the sin of Adam all men became sinners and were alienated from God; by the righteousness of Jesus Christ all men became righteous… restored to a right relationship with God.’ Paul said this more clearly in 1 Corinthians 15:21: ‘As by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive.’” Genesis 3’s archetypal story captured the human dilemma—the first Adam chose to ignore God’s direction, go his own way, and lost innocence, which led to shame, blaming, and in the end death. Paul described Jesus as the “second Adam” in both Romans 5 and 1 Corinthians 15. Unlike Adam, Jesus chose to follow God’s will at all costs. How did that victory give you the choice to live a life that moves toward goodness, restored innocence and eternal life? Barclay also wrote, “Mankind was involved in a situation from which there was no escape; sin had [humans] in its power and there was no hope. Into this situation came Jesus Christ, and… by what he did, by what he is, by what he gives, he enabled [humans] to escape a situation… hopelessly dominated by sin.” When have you seen even well- meaning human efforts go all wrong? How can those examples highlight the way all of us need what Paul called “the free gift of Christ”?

Prayer: Jesus, when you saw our world broken and hurting you didn’t shrug helplessly. You defeated all our brokenness to give us light, life and hope. I praise you for doing for me, for us, what we couldn’t do for ourselves. Amen.

Isaiah 25:8, 1 Corinthians 15:23-26, 54-57 || Sometimes, trying to be comforting, people say something like, “Death isn’t so bad.” Unlike many Greek philosophers, the apostle Paul didn’t view death itself positively, writing, “Death is the last enemy to be brought to an end.” In his view, only Jesus’ resurrection, making real God’s promise of eternal life, robs death of its “sting.” “Mortality, which is connected to human sin (see 1 Corinthians 15:56; Romans 5:12), is humankind’s final and unwavering enemy until the resurrection.” “To say that death is anything other than an enemy is to deny the goodness, beauty and power of God’s good creation. The point of resurrection is that it is the defeat of death…. since death is the unmaking of God’s creation, resurrection will be its remaking. That, and nothing less, is the Christian hope.” How did Jesus’ victory over death give reality to Isaiah 25’s promise that “The LORD God will wipe tears from every face” (quoted in Revelation 21:4)? Because of Easter, Paul laid out the “plot” of the Bible’s sweeping story of redemption this way: “Death came through a human being: See Genesis 3:17-24; Romans 5:12-14. the resurrection of the dead came through one too: See Romans 5:15-18. Only as a human could Jesus die and then defeat death by rising fully alive. How does that truth link Christmas with Easter in your faith?

Prayer: Lord Jesus, we say death is as sure as taxes. But by defeating death at Easter, you made eternal life a sure reality for me, and all who trust in you. Thank you. Amen.

Hebrews 2:14-15, Revelation 1:17-18 || From ancient Rome to today, human power’s last resort is the threat, “I will kill you.” Roman officials puzzled over how Jesus’ followers seemed unmoved by that threat. But by dying and rising again Jesus set his followers free from even the fear of death. The Bible ended with Revelation’s glorious vision of Jesus saying, “I was dead, but look! Now I’m alive forever and always. I have the keys of Death and the Grave.” You can read about Jesus’ arrest, trial and crucifixion in all four gospels. Jesus faced evil and death at their very worst. But you can also read the Easter story in all four gospels to see that Jesus defeated evil and death at their very worst. Early Christians staked their lives on the truth of Jesus’ victory over death. In what ways does fear of death subtly shape your life choices? How can Jesus’ death and resurrection set you free from that fear? When someone we love dies, we often use “combat” words like “she lost the battle.” But Paul denied that death “wins”: “Where is your victory, Death?” (1 Corinthians 15:55, quoting Hosea 13:14) For a Christian, death is not a defeat. Methodism’s founder, John Wesley, said, “Let this especially fortify us against the fear of death: It is now disarmed, and can do us no hurt.” * How can taking in the full meaning of Jesus’ resurrection give you greater trust in God’s eternity, where death will be no more?

Prayer: Lord Jesus, you went where most of us most dread going—the realm of death—and came out victorious! You offer me the choice to join you in that victory. I accept your offer of a life that lies beyond the power of death. Amen.

Scripture: 2 Peter 3:1-10 || Download