From the point of view of the disciples and apostles certainly Easter was a tremendous challenge. Because on Good Friday, when Jesus was betrayed, arrested and then of course jailed, already their hope in Jesus who they had believed in, who they followed, who they trusted, was now apparently powerless. And then of course, when the public gathered with Pontius Pilate, nobody stood up and defended Him. In fact, on the contrary, the crowd cried out, Acrucify him, crucify him.@ The only person that did anything was the wife of Pilate and she went up to Pilate and said, Ahave nothing to do with this innocent man.@ Then of course he was scourged, tormented, led to Calvary, and hung on the cross for three agonizing hours, and when he died I=m sure the hope of the apostles and disciples also died. After all they had followed him and where has it gone. And it must have been very, very discouraging. We have some glimps of this, of course, in Luke=s gospel in chapter 24, when the two disciples start going to Emmaus. And their comment is, Awe thought that He would be the one who would free us.@ And so their hope was dashed. And then of course when Saturday comes all they could think about is we spent three years doing all this and it profited us nothing. Then of course came the proclamation of the angel which the women shared. AWhy are you looking for the living among the dead?@ And at first it was hard for them to believe this. We just take Thomas, it took him a whole week and he had rather strong help from the Lord to overcome his faith in the resurrection.

And so what we learn from this is that when we are in the most difficult situations in our lives in which we are really trying to do what God wants and our hope is in God we are probably and even more certainly in a better position than when we think we=re in control and on top of things. Because in an instant, all of a sudden, things are totally turned around. And of course we can see this in the lives of the saints and our own life too if we just reflect a bit. When Monica was worried about her son and his waywardness and not practicing the faith she began to pray. She persevered in that prayer and what happened, the Lord turned her son totally around and made him a great saint in the church. So the real challenge of Easter is hope. Have we really met the Risen Lord and do we understand what has happened, what God did and is doing for those who believe. There are many passages that one can memorize at this point to remind us but one that I like is this: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has given us new birth a birth in hope that has its life in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Do we understand what we have been given in Baptism? That we have been given a new birth. Now. But it=s in hope - why? Because the fulness of the resurrection obviously isn=t around. But the life we have is derived from the resurrection of Jesus and therefore one day it will burst forth in glory when we die. And if we really see this, we have to be filled with praise. Praise be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has given us this new birth, this birth of hope that draw its life in the Resurrection. Now yesterday I tried to give you some idea of God=s action that this was the greatest action of God, it=s not an action that was done once, God does not do things for a while. He=s God, He does eternal things. So He is giving us, He didn=t give us the Spirit in Baptism just ok that=s it all you get it is for three years, no, no, no. The birth is the relationship of life flowing from the Resurrected Christ into us through the Spirit constantly. So the real lesson of Easter in terms of practical living is that we are a people that is totally unconquerable. We live in a hope that=s solidly grounded in the Resurrected Jesus and one day we will share the fulness of that.

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