Easter (2026)

            Thousands of people will die on this Easter holiday weekend as people die every day.  Many will have funerals.  Some will have celebrations of life.  Others will have no recognition of their death.  We say that every life matters, but does it seem that the world thinks so?

                We could ask how Jesus’ life become so important? When we think about it, it’s amazing.  Reverend James Allen once wrote a poem that reflected in wonder about One Solitary Life.  As Allen points out in his prose, Jesus’ life was consequential when it shouldn’t have been.  Allen writes:

                “He was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in still another village, where he worked as a carpenter until he was thirty. He became an itinerant preacher.  He never wrote a book.  He never held an office.  He never had a family or owned a house. He never traveled beyond a couple of hundred miles from where he was born. He did nothing associated with greatness. 

He was only 33 when public opinion turned against him. His friends ran away.  He was turned over to his enemies and went through a mockery of a trial.  He was nailed to a cross between two thieves. He was laid to rest in a grave through the pity of a friend.”

So, Jesus wasn’t treated as important when he was buried. When a person dies, who is noteworthy in the eyes of the world, there is usually a large funeral.  A grand obituary is written that lists all the awards the person has received. Perhaps they lay in state in a public place. Testimonials are given. The body of the deceased is carried with reverence to its final resting place.   

One doesn’t have to live long to have such a funeral.  Perhaps it is just dying in the right way for a noble cause that causes such a display of sorrow.  Sometimes it depends on the politics of the moment.  Quite often at such ceremonies the words hero or martyr are thrown around.

We also have the opposite situation.  Right now, a lot of people are dying in our world.  Many die in obscurity because they live in the wrong place at an unfortunate point in history.  Such people haven’t done anything wrong, but they are caught up in global struggles that have little to do with them. A person might have a bomb fall on their house without warning.  People may be told they have twenty-four hours to leave their home before a battle begins. People are displaced many times because they stand in the way of an advancing army. When they leave, they may face life in an internment camp where disease and starvation are their fate.  At the end of their lives, they may be buried in a common grave. 

We could ask this Easter which story, the story of the honored hero or the story of the powerless nobody reflects the story of Jesus?  The women who walked to the grave of Jesus represent so many impoverished mothers and fathers who kneel weeping over the body bags of their children throughout the world. Obviously, Jesus’ life reflects the lives of many nobodies throughout history.  The stories of such people unfold today. Powerful, wealthy, people make decisions that cause the death and suffering of others, but don’t seem to care.

The Easter story leaves no doubt that God cares.  God sent his son into the world as a human being. Not just any human being but a poor, powerless human being.  Jesus was one who we would describe today as a person who lived on the margins of society. His story was supposed to end as so many men, women, children’s stories end, in obscurity.

But then the women got to the tomb. And the tomb was empty.  Death was defeated by the love of God. And everything changed. As the Gospel relates, an earthquake happened and the values of the world were transposed before the eyes of many witnesses. Jesus’ inconsequential life changed the trajectory of the world.

As James Allen put it so well,

“Twenty centuries have come and gone, and today He is the central figure of humanity, the leader of human progress. All the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever sailed, all the parliaments that ever sat, all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of the human race as that One Solitary Life.”

We remember today that no life passes unnoticed by God.  And the faith we celebrate today tells us that everyone who believes won’t die in oblivion but will be raised up in triumph.