It's Easter - What a glorious day!

Jesus is risen - he is risen indeed!

Whilst the resurrection is something we celebrate every day as followers of Christ, there’s something incredibly special about gathering with the Church - across the world - for one day to honour the very heart of our faith: our King who died and rose again for us.

I enjoy Richard Bauckham’s commentary on John, where he calls it the gospel of glory, noting Jesus’ death as a moment of glorification. It's a beautiful, upside-down truth: that glory is found in death. This phrase can be seen in an unhealthy morbid manner, but when we begin to understand “glory” as the very nature of God being revealed to us, it all comes into focus.

It’s God's heart to lay down his life for those he loves, and to rise again - bringing us with him into new life. His glorification is a display of divine love that will stop at nothing to rescue and reveal.

In John’s Gospel, we find Mary Magdalene as the first witness of the resurrection. In Luke, it’s Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and other women who first discover the empty tomb. These are just a few of the women named in Scripture, and though we aren’t told much about them, we know that in that time, a woman’s testimony held little to no weight in society. And yet -John and Luke include them at this pivotal moment in the Christian story.

They were the first to witness the risen Christ, or the empty tomb, and the angels who declared:

“Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’” (Luke 24:5–7)

Every year, I try to put myself in the place of these women. What must it have felt like to arrive at the tomb and find it empty? To be met, not with a body to grieve over, but with angels announcing life? I imagine the shock, the fear, the holy awe - and perhaps a sense of dawning wonder as the truth began to sink in. It may have been a lightbulb moment: that everything Jesus had said was true. The impossible had happened. For Mary Magdalene, perhaps it felt like finally coming home - recognising the voice of the one she thought she'd lost, calling her by name.

And now, two thousand years later, we still find ourselves in that moment - again and again - every time we draw close to the risen Jesus. The one who has defeated death on our behalf. The one who doesn’t remain distant or aloof, but who chooses to make a home in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, calling us by our name.

And like those first women, we are called to tell the story - even when it’s hard. Even when no one around us seems to believe. Even when our voice feels too small, or our experience feels too unremarkable. Because here’s the truth: your witness matters. Your experience of Jesus - however quiet or extraordinary, however new or long-held - is part of the story God is telling in the world. And it’s worth sharing.

I think we often jump ahead to Acts when we talk about witness - to Pentecost and the miracles and the bold preaching. But it’s worth remembering that the very first act of Christian witness was a simple sharing of what they had seen. Nothing complicated or extravagant. And to be reminded that even these women were met with scepticism - even from those who knew Jesus best. Yet the women didn’t hold back, they shared what they had seen.

So today, I want to encourage you in two ways:

Keep trusting that the story of Jesus is worth sharing as you bear witness to Jesus in your own life and community. You don’t have to have all the answers. You don’t have to be an eloquent preacher. You have a story to share.

Second, thank you. Truly - thank you. To those who keep faithfully sharing Jesus, who keep loving your neighbours, who speak the name of Jesus in quiet conversations, and who invite others into relationship with God: thank you.

Jesus is risen - he is risen indeed!

Jo Allen

Director South West