I can’t let the Easter feeling go, even though the day has passed. . .

We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of God the Father, we too may live a new life. If we have been united with him in his death, we will certainly be united with him in his resurrection.
–Romans 6:4-5

It is the whisper of the first breath
Drawn through cracked, unused lips
It is the rustle of graveclothes
Being laid aside, folded and
Squared on a cold ledge
It is the sound of fingertips
Brushing along a hewn wall
In predawn darkness
It is the rasp of a stone wheel
Grating in its track
What unearthly stillness
Greets this once-corpse as
He surveys the earth
That had been His torture-chamber

I hear these sounds
Across two thousand years, and
My lips strain to speak to Him
I want to tear away
My garments of death
I grope through my darkness,
My shoulder failing against the weight–
This sound I hear
This sound I hear
Is the sound of my Jesus
Rising again in
My heart

The Resurrection of Jesus is an historical fact, attested to by more direct evidence by eyewitnesses to the risen Lord than any other event of ancient history. it happened at a certain time, in a real place, and its effects were witnessed to by as many as five hundred people at a time. But Jesus draws us to Himself one person at a time. Each person who wants to show faith in Him must mimic His death and resurrection (Romans 6) in order to be able to have fellowship with Him, and to be called His child. But resurrection of the soul doesn’t take place only in the waters of baptism, it must take place internally as well: in the depths of each soul who enthrones Him there.

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