When Jesus was confronted by a lawyer of the Pharisees challenging him to state the greatest commandment in the law, without any hesitation Jesus replied saying, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind ... and you shall love your neighbor as yourself" It was the genius of Jesus to summarize the law and the prophets in this one precious commandment, offered to us like the two faces of a golden coin!

When a similar question was put to famous theologian Karl Barth, asking him how he would summarize his volumes of theological dogmatics, he answered saying, "Jesus loves me! this I know, for the Bible tells me so." After all, what is the gospel message if not God¹s infinite, amazing and gracious love revealed to us in Jesus the Christ!

When a similar question was asked by Lucy in Charles Schultz¹s comic strip Peanuts, a question about the ultimate meaning in life, she received a variety of answers from the other characters in the strip. Linus, who was asked first, looked at her for a moment, and without a word held out his blanket to Lucy, as if to say, "the meaning of life is security." Naturally, Lucy was not satisfied. When the same question was put to Charlie Brown, he immediately began to answer with a mouthful of moralisms: "Be kind, don¹t smoke, be promptŠ" to which Lucy retorted, "Hold still, for I am about to hit you a very sharp blow on the nose." Next came Schroeder, who throwing up his hands exclaimed, "Beethoven! Beethoven is it! Clear and simple." To which Lucy replied with her famous, "Good grief!"

Finally, when Lucy, in desperation, facing a black spangled sky with millions of tiny lights, posed the same question to the stars, all she got was silence, and looking up with fists clinched she shouted, "Dumb stars!"

So here we are in this season of Christ¹s passion, death and resurrection, with a variety of answers to the ultimate questions about life. Twenty centuries after the wonderful Good News of God¹s redeeming love reverberated throughout history, people are still making their choices and living and dying by their choice!

As for me, my word to you is to echo the angelic message at the empty tomb, "Don't be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has been raised!" Along with Paul, I believe that the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ is at the heart of the gospel message, for without it our faith would be futile and we would still be in our sins! But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, for the living Christ has been raised from the dead, for the living Christ has been, is, and ever shall be the constant life-companion of all who believe in him and trust their lives to him! In Christ, God is Immanuel - God with us, embracing us in his love which can overcome all fear, anxiety, meaninglessness, boredom, loneliness, emptiness, and yes, even death and the fear of nothingness! Thanks to Christ¹s resurrection from the dead, you and I do not need to live in bondage to fear, but are freed to live our lives in his love, and with courage and faith offer that life back to him as a farmer offers the seed to mother earth in faith of a plentiful harvest. Alleluia! Amen! JMS

Hallelujah, He is risen!