easter sonrise

posted by Peri Zahnd on April 13, 2009 at 7:28 AM The day before Easter had been sunny, warm and beautiful, a perfect spring day. I had hopes for the same on Easter Sunday, and was awake to watch the sunrise. Sunrise on that sad morning 2,000 years ago was when the earth shook and everything changed forever--sunrise was the moment the Son of God rose from the dead.

The sky was brightening and at five minutes till seven an orange glow appeared on the eastern horizon. It grew and grew over the next couple of minutes, warming my heart as I watched. But then it began to shrink again, and soon disappeared behind the grey cloud that covered the entire sky. Those few minutes were the only time I saw the sun that entire day, as it remained overcast and later rained in the afternoon.

At first I was sad about the sunless day. But then I began to think how similar God’s own Son’s rising had been. Yes, the Son has risen. We have seen Him! He is here! His Kingdom is here! Who can deny that the Light has come? It’s no longer dark—as it had been dark at 3am, a few hours before. But on the other hand, it’s not what it’s going to be when someday God rolls away the clouds and we see Jesus in His fullness—the returning King come to set the world aright!

The Resurrection has begun. The New Age is upon us. Jesus began it, a few others in a cemetery in Jerusalem experienced it, but most of us are still living in hope and anticipation of the Resurrection to come. We are living in the in-between time, the time of walking by faith, the time when the Kingdom of God is more like an Impressionist painting than a photograph. The light has come, the glory of the LORD is upon us. The day IS dawning, and the Morning Star is rising in our hearts. It was a beautiful Easter Sunday, and every year Easter becomes more beautiful as the realization of what God has done grows in me.

so great a salvation!

posted by Peri Zahnd on April 10, 2009 at 10:06 AM

I can’t help remembering an episode of the reality TV show "I Shouldn’t Be Alive" I saw a couple of months ago. A man and a woman, beginning scuba divers, were left behind by their boat twenty miles out to sea. Swimming in the ocean and scuba diving freaks me out anyhow, not something I’m too keen on. It was a hopeless, scary situation. They prayed for rescue and just tried to hold on, but hours later, as night fell, it was apparent that nobody was going to come. They were hungry, thirsty, exhausted, and very, very afraid. They had to face a long dark night afloat in the ocean, fighting panic and exhaustion. They finally made the difficult decision to begin swimming in the direction of the land, knowing what a futile effort it was, and that their movement would create an attraction for sharks.

My stomach was in knots as I watched, and yes, the sharks did find them. They watched the dorsal fins circling about them, only imagining the size of the bodies beneath the water. They felt them brush against their feet, screaming in panicked desperation—there was no one who could save them. Miraculously, the sharks did not attack, and when, hours later, the sky begin to turn light and the sun arose, there was a brief time of increased hopefulness, which was quickly dashed after an hour of hard swimming seemed to get them no closer to the distant shore.

Hours later, however, exhausted, the shore did draw close. They were elated again, until they realized that the shore was not a gentle sand beach they could land on, but jagged cliffs that the waves were crashing into. Their bodies would be broken into pieces if they approached. Wrenching despair and disappointment and great fear.....but SUDDENLY!!!

A BOAT appeared out of nowhere. Fishermen, who saw them, and pulled up beside them, and hoisted their exhausted bodies out of the water, as they were too depleted to help themselves at all. They wrapped blankets around them and laid them in the bottom of the boat, gave them bottles of fresh water. And the poor man and woman were overcome with laughter, emotion draining from their bodies, not knowing anything else to do, they laughed and laughed and laughed.

Immediately, I thought of Psalm 126:

"When the Lord brought back his exiles to Jerusalem, It was like a dream!

We were filled with laughter, and we sang for joy.

And the other nations said, 'What amazing things the Lord has done for them.’

Yes, the Lord has done amazing things for us! What joy!"

And today, I also think of the disciples on Good Friday. They were devastated. Their ideas about the Messiah, this great revolutionary who was going to restore the fortunes of Israel, were dashed on the rocks. They had sacrificed everything, and it was all in vain. They were probably going to die with him too. There was no way out. There was no one to save. Their Messiah had failed, or so they thought.

Just a few days later, their King would rise from the dead, and they would begin to understand that they really hadn’t understood anything at all! I imagine they laughed, just like the stranded scuba divers, just like the exiled Israelites, the laughter of their world being turned upside down, or more correctly, turned rightside up. Their Savior had done it! Their Messiah had conquered death and the grave. And the story never gets old, as we celebrate once again the Resurrection of the Son of God and the victory of the cross. Thank you Jesus!!!!