Dan Van Ommen: Easter brings freedom

The story of Easter, the resurrection, is about being set free and made anew. The astonishment is that new life happens in a most unimaginable place ... a graveyard. Nevertheless, the discovery of an empty tomb is at the heart of the Christian faith.

Easter began in the dark, in the quiet, before animals or humans were awake. The event is described in the New Testament book of Mark, chapter 16, verses 1-8.

Three women get up in the dark and assemble the spices that they had purchased the previous evening. As dawn breaks,  they begin to make their way to the tomb where the body of Jesus had been placed. Three days after Jesus' execution, their spices are not going to do much good; the stench of death and decay would be overwhelming. They take the spices anyway. The women also know that when they get to the tomb it will be sealed with a massive stone, to keep the stench in and the buzzards out. They go to the tomb anyway.

Those faithful women get to the tomb and find it empty. Well, not entirely. An angel in white is there and tells them that Jesus has been raised from the dead, and has gone back home to Galilee where it all began. "He goes on ahead of you," says the angel. "He's waiting for you at home. Go and see him there."

Jesus had been freed, and he wasn't sitting around resting, he was on the move. It wasn't enough for heaven to open and God the Father to bring humanity its greatest gift ... life after death. There was more freedom work to be done  however, and it began, again, back home in Galilee, as Jesus gathered with his disciples and followers and commissioned them to bring the Good News of the Gospel to all the world.

We shouldn't be surprised that the very moment that Jesus was freed from death he would immediately continue his work, to liberate others. He had set so many free during his earthly ministry; including casting out demons, healing the physically and spiritually broken and even raising the dead. He freed people from hunger, feeding thousands at a time. He freed people from hate and prejudice, teaching them to see one another not as categories worthy of discrimination, but as human beings made in the image of God.

Many who witnessed Jesus' death, experienced their freedom in most interesting circumstances. Three examples come to mind:

First, Scripture tells us that Jesus was not executed alone. Two other men, described as criminals, were executed with him. One of the criminals called out to Jesus with a request, "Remember me when you come into your Kingdom!" Jesus answered his desperate plea; and invited him into paradise. I like to think of this repented criminal as a person "set free in the extreme."

Second, Mary Magdalene. It was Mary who was the first person on earth to see the risen Christ. He was alive! She didn't believe it at the time, even as she looked into the tomb and saw it was empty. Mary did not consider it as the result of resurrection. It was not until someone standing in the garden asked her, "Why are you crying?" Then he said her name, "Mary," and in that moment, she recognized her Lord. Grief melted away, and joy rushed in. Mary was truly free.

Finally, we read in Luke 24:13-16, about two of Jesus' followers who were walking to the village of Emmaus,  seven miles outside of Jerusalem. As they walked along, lamenting about the death of Jesus; Jesus himself came alongside and joined them in their journey. But they didn't recognize him. They had been set free, but didn't realize it.

Along the way, in the midst of their doubts and disappointment, Jesus joins them on their journey and stays with them all the way to their destination. Later that day, as they sat down to eat,  according to Luke 24:31, (they) "had their eyes opened, and knew him." They had been set free.

Jesus of Nazarerus spent his earthly life, and now his eternal life inviting us to join him in what Oswald J. Smith called, "A song of a soul set free." Jesus desires to welcome us into the freedom that comes to those who claim the Gospel message.

A wise man once said, speaking of Jesus, "A man who was completely innocent, offered himself as a sacrifice for the good of others, including his enemies; he became the ransom of the world. It was a perfect act." The speaker was not a Pope or a preacher but Gandhi; and he was right, ransom buys freedom.

We can be set free because of God's great gift to us. May we, during Easter and always, live as new people, redeemed and living our lives as a testimony to the divine love and grace that sets us free. Happy Easter!

— Dan Van Ommen is a Zeeland resident and a member of the Reformed Church in America. Contact him at dan.vanommen@gmail.com. 

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Dan Van Ommen: Easter brings freedom