My grandchildren came to visit this weekend, and as always, within seconds of their arrival, my house was turned upside down. Pens, paper, paint, glue and glitter were out. Sitckers and jewels adorned their artwork. Then toys were dug out of toyboxes and everything was scattered. Children bring with them mess and a whirlwind of activity. ‘Messy church’ acknowledges this as we allow creativity into church services, often giving children the opportunity to learn about Jesus in age-appropriate ways that inevitably involve mess!

I don’t much enjoy mess and yet I see that it’s an inevitable and necessary part of life. This doesn’t just apply to children, however. All of life is messy. Birth involves blood and bodily fluids; there will be many accidents and spillages throughout life (the tablecloth never stays very clean when my grandchildren are here, but they’re not the only ones who spill!) Relationships are often complicated; there is the pain and mess of our mistakes and failures which can radically affect our lives.

I find it reassuring that the Bible is so honest about the mess of life. Sin has messed up God’s original plans and we are unable to tidy up after ourselves and repair the damage. The Easter story reminds us that God sent a Saviour to deal with the mess of sin. His death was messy, painful and bloody. Afterwards, there was the mess of having to deal with a dead body over Passover (rather akin to dealing with death when the bureaucracy closes down for a Bank Holiday in this country.) I love how we see the women going to the tomb on that first Easter Sunday because there were still things to sort out and deal with. We often think of death as the end, but in actual fact, death brings with it the chaos of administration and the hectic busyness of sorting out a funeral service and dealing with the minutiate of life for those who are left behind. I can remember sitting in the funeral director’s the morning after my Mum died being shown a catalogue of funeral caskets and flower arrangements and wondering how any of these details mattered! Yet all of these things have to be dealt with; decisions have to be made.

Life is messy, often unpredictable, rarely comfortable and never as neat and tidy as we would like, however organised we are, however good we are at planning. But the truth is we have a God who was prepared to get His hands dirty to save us. He did not watch from afar. He did not leave us to get on with it. Easter is a time when we remember the painful intervention of death into the story, but that is not the end of the story. The resurrection of Jesus reminds us that there can be hope in our messy lives. I imagine the resurrection caused a lot of mess too – imagine the Roman guards having to explain why there was no body in the tomb! Imagine how hard it was for the Pharisee Saul to adapt his theology so that a man who died on a cross could actually be God’s Messiah! Mess is there, everywhere, but as everyone who does messy artwork knows, the process of creativity is messy but wonderful in what it achieves. May we embrace mess instead of trying to flee from it and understand that God is there with us (‘Immanuel’), even in the mess.

Garry continued his study on Joseph this morning, looking at his elevation or promotion in Gen 41:41-43 and seeing in this a type of Christ’s resurrection and elevation. After so many years of adversity, the tables were turned as one day Joseph was in prison and the next day he was exalted to a position alongside Pharaoh ,the ruler of Egypt – the ultimate ‘rags to riches’ story.

Phil 2:6-8 reminds us that Jesus did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage but accepted the lowliness of human form. He who had created the world (see John 1:1-3, 10, 14, 17) took on human flesh and humbled himself and became obedient, even to death on the cross. Just as it took years of humility before Joseph was elevated to this position of importance, so Jesus laid aside his glory, majesty and power in order to bring our salvation (see Matt 20:27-28).Yet the tremendous news of Easter is not simply that Jesus died for our sins, but that He is no longer dead! (1 Cor 15:3-8) God exalted Jesus to the highest place (see Phil 2:8-11) and we can be sure of the fact of the resurrection. There was an empty tomb (no body was ever produced), and as Paul tells us, Jesus appeared to many people on different occasions. They were not expecting this miracle, but they all consistently testified to it subsequently (many even being killed because of their testimony.)

The fact of the resurrection has an impact on our lives, however. Rom 1:1-4 tells us that Jesus was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead. Just as Pharaoh put Joseph in charge of the whole land of Egypt (Gen 41:41), so Jesus wants to be Lord of our lives (in charge!) God wants us to repent (Acts 17:29-31) and have a totally new direction for our lives. Then He fills our lives with new purpose (see 2 Cor 5:11-15). The knowledge of the resurrection brings responsibility and brings us to a place of daily surrender where we are called to live in the light of His resurrection.

Easter Sunday is here and we rejoice with the message of the angels that ‘He is not here, but has risen.’ (Luke 24:1-12) These words were spoken to the women who had come to the tomb expecting to anoint the body of their Lord. They had come ‘to bury with him their hopes of a new way of living, their dreams of a world which was governed by justice and mercy, a kingdom of righteousness and truth.’ (‘Sharing The Easter Story’, P 218) But as they arrived, musing how they were going to roll the stone away, they found that God had been before them and changed everything.

This is what Easter is all about: the God who died and rose again and changes everything. Phil Wickham, in the song ‘Christ Is Risen’, sings,

‘The prodigal is welcomed home,
The sinner now a saint,
For the God who died came back to life
And everything is changed.’

Everything is changed. We are changed. As we hear these words properly, take them into our hearts and live by them, we are changed. ‘And then we must share this wonderful story, because this news is too good to keep to ourselves!’ (‘Sharing The Easter Story’, P 219)

We celebrated our Good Friday service by eating a meal together, just as Jesus did at the Last Supper with His disciples.

After the meal, we shared Holy Communion and had a service where we focussed on our Lent theme of ‘changing.’

As we said yesterday, life is rarely 100% happy. ‘The ancient biblical narratives about the resurrection of Jesus contain a mixture of ecstasy and despondency, an intermingling of delight and discouragement,’ Sally Welch writes. (‘Sharing The Easter Story’, P 215) Not surprisingly, this news, so alien to us all, caused confusion and doubt to some of the followers of Jesus, including those two disciples who walked on the road to Emmaus.

Matt 27:62-66 tells us how the tomb was sealed so that there could be no way Jesus’s disciples would ever be able to speak about a resurrection. Many of us live our lives in that Holy Saturday moment, trapped, held back by the lies of the world, unable to praise God. Yet Christ appears to us as He did to those two disciples, to the women who were grief-stricken; He appears ‘where two or three are gathered in his name.’ (Matt 18:20)

As we approach Easter Sunday, we are reminded that the gospel is indeed good news – but it can only be so if that news is shared. Sally Welch speaks of how we do this: through ‘simple conversations, cheerful sharing of hospitality, easy and sympathetic companionship.’ (‘Sharing The Easter Story’, P 216) Hope rises as we remind ourselves of the truth that Jesus is alive forever now.