Easter 2026: He is alive. He is here.

The cross is empty. The body is buried. The tomb is sealed. The voices have fallen silent. Nothing moves.

It was silent.

Until it wasn’t.

Some of the women who followed Jesus arrive at the tomb, ready to properly prepare the body. They expect death, a sealed tomb, a lost friend. But…

The silence is broken.

The stone is rolled away. The tomb is empty. Death is not the end. Jesus is not there.

Jesus knew. He knew Judas would betray him. He knew he would suffer and die. And it mattered.

Jesus went. With head held high, he pushed on towards the cross. He knew that the story didn’t end there.

Jesus suffered. He did not lash out, he did not give up, he bore it out of love. He knew it was worth it.

It was silent. Jesus died, his body was laid in a sealed tomb. But it was not finished.

All the confusion from yesterday, those promises that haven’t come to pass yet, the closed doors and dead ends, the grief and despair of lost hope – they don’t have the last word.

Because a door will open, in God’s time. The promises are true, in God’s time. Hope will spring again, in God’s time.

The hope of the disciples, everything they had experienced and trusted in, was never wasted, was not misplaced. Even when things looked dark, God was at work.

Because the tomb is empty, but Jesus is not gone. The women find the body gone and tell the others. And then, one by one, they begin to see him. Walking with them on the road. Standing among them in a locked room. Meeting them on a mountainside.

Jesus is alive.

Not just then, but now. Not just for them, but for us. Because we still know what it is to wait. To sit in silence. To face closed doors and endings we didn’t choose. We still find ourselves in those in-between places,  where Easter Sunday has happened, and yet we are still living in something that feels like Holy Saturday.

But the silence is not empty. God is still at work. Even here.

The stone has been rolled away. Death has been defeated. Hope is not lost. Even if we cannot yet see it.

Jesus is alive. And he is here.

Here, in the waiting.

Here, in the questions.

Here, in the places that still feel unfinished.

The story is not over. And neither are ours. He is alive. He is here.