He is Risen!

“He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead, just as he said would happen. Come, see where his body was lying” (Matthew 28:6).

I’d been a Christian for ten years before someone ever said “He is risen” to me on Easter.

“He is risen,” Genie said to me a few years ago on Easter afternoon when she and her husband came over for Easter dinner.

“Why the heck are you saying that?” Spiritual Jess asked.

“Well, I say ‘He is risen’ and then you respond with ‘He is risen indeed.’ It’s an Easter greeting that we always said growing up in church.”

Oh. The church I grew up in had me pretend to be different dead people while they baptized me in a giant mirrored room in a big bowl that sat on some golden oxen! So that might explain why I had never heard “He is risen” before. Aaaah!

But when Genie told me the Easter greeting, I just fell in love with it. There is something so joyous in the words “He is risen”, something that makes me want to sing and dance and weep as I think about the empty tomb and my risen King.

That’s it. Those are my Easter thoughts. My day has been full of french toast, Bible stories, egg hunts, gifts (Hugh and I always give each kid one Easter gift to encourage them in their relationship with Christ), and a phenomenal church service.

I’ve got to go make some mashed potatoes now.

But if you call me, and I pick up and say, “He is risen!”

I know I’ll hear you say back:

“He is risen indeed!”