The Coming Light of Easter

In my favourite Easter artwork, Eugene Bernand’s 1898 masterpiece “The Disciples Peter and John running to the Sepulchre on the Morning of the Resurrection,” the two followers of Jesus hurry across an open, fallow field to the tomb. One is young and full of passion, his hands clasped as if in fervent prayer, and dressed in an angelic white; the other is old and haggard, weighed down by regret, hoping against hope for the chance for redemption, wearing the dark and heavy cloak of sadness. And yet both are equally drawn to the hope out of frame, the Resurrection light left out of the immediate image, but reflected in the golden light of burning away the clouds and shadows of night, a light which reflects in their eyes also. Bernand doesn’t simply give us the resurrection presented objectively and in static form, but instead plants it within us, as within the disciples, as a longing, drawing us out of our complacency and into a posture of expectation, the belief that “though weeping may tarry for the night, joy comes in the morning” (Psalm 30:5).

May we all know the power of the resurrection in our lives and live it out day by day, as it enters into our shadows and brings forth the light of the dawn. A blessed Easter to each of you, friends. He is risen!