“Is Easter about Jesus back then, or it is about me right now?”

Did you know that Easter is one of the few floating holidays in the calendar year? It is because it's based on the cycles of the moon. Tradition asserts that Jesus was raised from the dead on the first Sunday after the first full moon of spring. For that reason, Easter can fall as early as March 22 and as late as April 25.

But, more important than placing the "Festival of the Resurrection" on the calendar, the Bible summons us to ask, “Is Easter about Jesus back then, or it is about me right now?” John's Gospel claims that Resurrection is not a fact to be proved but a presence to be experienced. That’s difficult for many of us because we were raised in environments and systems where the truth of something is always determined by the intellect – where rational laws determine if it is true or not. Maybe we're coming out of that worldview. Maybe we are beginning to see now that reality is more fluid than that. Laws aren’t so ironclad. Sometimes they apply, sometimes they don’t.

For any individual, that means that I have a freedom much greater than I ever imagined. I have the freedom to determine the quality of the life that I’m going to live. I can be more than I am right now. Or, you can be what you are and, like algae in a pond, just settle there. But there is a power that is set forth in this world at Easter, a power to build up life, a power that heals, a power that gives new life, a power that conquers evil and death. It is a power that comes to me and to you -- and can emanate from you and me.

In fact, that power is already here, inside of me, inside of you. Could you imagine there is a power within, locked up in some tomb in side of each one of us? And what happens when I have the courage to act on what I believe, that power inside of me is released, like a stone being rolled away, and I begin to become more than I ever thought I could be. I don’t know how it happens. All I know is it happens. I can say I believe Jesus was resurrected from the dead – because I can see the power of Jesus at work in the lives of people today.

The story of Jesus' breathing new life into the disciples and then sending them out into the world to give new life to other people – that is one of the many miracles of Easter. It means that Jesus lives in the lives of those who say they believe. For being a Christian is not a matter of seeing the resurrected Christ. Rather being a follower of Jesus is to be empowered by the present aliveness of the Spirit of Christ. If you let that happen, you will discover yourself to be more than you ever thought you could be --like the disciples-- and those about you will find you to be more than you ever were!