Father Stewart's Blog

5th April 2015

Why we should be happy at Easter
Three brothers who lived in a village were always getting into trouble.  Anything that went wrong or missing they were always the Prime Suspects!
One day in exasperation, after yet another run in with some neighbours, their mum asked the parish priest to have a word with them; perhaps they might listen to him.

So he called in the youngest son first and asked him, “Where is God?” The little boy started to look around the room, under things and in the wardrobe. All the time the priest kept saying, “No. Where is God?” The little boy finally left the room and told his brothers, we’re in big trouble this time! “Why?” they asked.
“Because God’s gone missing and they think we’ve got something to do with it!!”

Whether you found that funny or not, in parts of Russia at Easter it’s the custom to tell each other jokes. Why? To remind one another that at Easter God played the greatest joke of all on the devil! He allowed him to think he’d won, that he’d killed the Son of God on Good Friday. He allowed him to celebrate his victory. But on Easter morning he delivered the punchline,
“Fool! Only joking! Look! Jesus is Risen! Ha Ha. You can’t beat God!!” God always has the last word and the resurrection demonstrates his power over sin and death itself. The devil can’t win; God always has the last laugh.

The story also reminds us that the resurrection also points to another truth – God doesn’t go missing. The Risen Lord is always with us. In fact through our baptisms, he is alive in us NOW!  All we have to do to find him? Look!!