A Most Unusual Easter
A most unusual Easter, this is.
Disconcertingly quiet is all there is.
No sunrise services, no painted eggs.
No jubilant greetings, just a nod of our heads.
Confined to our homes or hotels instead.
The awful Covid-19 that we all hate.
Can we still proclaim the victory of life Easter over
when death looks certain both young and old, weak and strong to devour?
An unmistakable “Yes” I dare say,
Evinced by what took place that first Easter day!
‘I am the resurrection and the life,’ our Lord declared
‘Whoever believes in me, though he dies,
– yet shall he live,
And everyone who lives and believes in me
– shall never die.’
But disease and death must ravage the earth,
As they did Lazarus, now this globe unnerve.
For all of us through sin our souls did die,
Even now in our bodies our deaths we cannot deny.
But Jesus did come his life to lay,
Once and for all, to gather his sheep that stray.
For Jesus said ‘a grain of seed must die’
But when it does, it multiply.
So with his own life the price he paid
That the many are bought and with the Father he laid
But first, his death he may not dismiss
Although in the dreary darkness, we thought something’s amiss.
The world’s redemption; yes, every one of us who’s lost,
Can only be properly accomplished through that old rugged cross.
The suffering and the cross cannot be passed
But death, that word, is not the last
Our Lord, the Author of Life, death has no hold
His life, the Great Shepherd lays down, his authority unfold
He rises again, death has to bow
New life he offers to everyone now.
‘Repent and believe in the gospel!’ St Mark did say,
So to you, I urge, do not delay.
‘You must be born again!’ To Nicodemus Jesus declared.
‘Born of the water and the Spirit,’ all must be had.
Disease and darkness, the gloom of Covid-19 may tarry,
But victory the resurrected Jesus did win already.
Though kept at home, and no church to go,
Our Living Lord every heart and home may know.
Rev Dr Jimmy Tan, Chaplain,
Lecturer in Pastoral and Practical Theology
