I have many wonderful memories of Easter over the years. Many rich and varied worship experiences. I’m not sure how you have experienced this sacred season in the past, but for me it has always been the most sacred and the richest part of my faith and worship experience each year. It far eclipses Christmas, or Pentecost Sunday. Through the Easter season – Palm Sunday, Holy Week and Resurrection Day – my worship is deeper, there is more soul-searching, more gratitude, new discoveries about the Messiah, and new commitment as I remember the grace of God in Him who was the Lamb of God who took away my sins.
There is no greater gift …
Romans 6:23 (NIV)
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
When I was a kid growing up in Box Hill North we had new neighbours a few doors down the street. I went to Primary School with their daughter, Jan. The Pashalis family were not that long arrived in Australia. I think Jan was a baby when they landed in Melbourne, and now here they were in Box Hill North, with Mr Pashalis now working for a relative as a concreter. I clearly remember one chilly Easter Sunday morning as dawn was breaking. I was up early while the house was still quiet eager to get to worship, but it was another five-hour wait before we could get there. I was always impatient on Sundays. Even if I walked the two kilometres to church, as I often did because I couldn’t wait for mum and dad, the place would be locked anyway. So, here I was sitting on the front fence in my pyjamas and dressing gown, shivering slightly in the cold watching as the sun’s first rays warmed the morning sky.
I was suddenly aware of movement out of the corner of my eye. I turned my head, and it was Mr Pashalis, coffee in hand, welcoming the dawn as he sat on his front porch. He had been there for some minutes but I had not noticed. I studied him for a moment and realised he was praying (I can tell when someone is silently praying, and that was what he was doing). So, I prayed, too. After a few moments he looked up and noticed me sitting on our front fence. He smiled and nodded a distant “hello”. I did the same. He finished his coffee, and then Mr Pashalis walked down his driveway and came to where I was sitting. He gazed at me silently. I gazed back with an awkward smile and extended my hand in greeting. He did the same. And he held my hand in a warm and firm handshake. As he looked at me I saw his eyes brimming with tears. And he whispered two words to me I had never heard before, and will never, ever forget.
"Christos Anesti!”, he whispered reverently and in an almost conspiratorial way, as if it was some important secret. But it was no secret, and I didn’t know what those two words meant. But I sensed they were important. They were! We were both up early for the very same reason. Then he said it again, louder this time with so much joy, and tears now flowing freely. "Christos Anesti! Christos Anesti!”, he said over and over, And then he dropped my hand, looked heavenward with hands raised in worship and yelled it out again – “CHRISTOS ANESTI! CHRIST IS RISEN!”
“Christos Anesti!”
Afterward Mr Pashalis sat and explained that in his language Χριστός Ανέστη is a traditional Greek Easter greeting meaning "Christ is Risen". It is the traditional Paschal (Easter) greeting used by Orthodox Christians to proclaim the resurrection of Jesus, and is usually spoken from Easter Sunday for 40 days until the Ascension. As we sat and talked of what we were going to celebrate this resurrection day, I learned that this Greek Easter greeting was always met with the traditional response, from the other person, "Alithos Anesti" (Ἀληθῶς ἀνέστη), which means "Truly He is Risen”, or “He is Risen Indeed!”
Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! There is no doubt about it. Our entire hope rests on Christ’s resurrection. In baptism we have been bound to Christ and bound to His atoning death – and to His resurrection. That is an eternal reality that begins the moment we are born again!
Romans 6:5 (NIV)
“For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we will certainly also be united with Him in a resurrection like His.”
The resurrection of Christ was the single biggest, most impactful influence on those first disciples and the early Church. It defined them! Totally transformed them! The authorities were incredulous and tried to shut them up – but they did not succeed. The resurrection was profoundly powerful and transformative. This was an exceedingly great and inextinguishable hope and a stunning existential reality that changed everything. The power of the resurrection obliterated all other perceived realities, all humanistic logic and rationalising; it silenced scoffers and confounded sceptics – believers faced persecution and death in the Roman Coliseum because the resurrection is the single biggest reality the world had ever witnessed and that a man or woman can ever experience. Life was now lived by Christians on a whole other plane …
Acts 17:28 (NIV)
'For in Him we live and move and have our being.'”
That cold Easter day will live forever in my heart. The Pashalis family moved away some years later and, sadly, I never saw them again. But I vividly remember a simple man from another land sharing His faith in Jesus, hands raised towards heaven in our street that morning, publicly worshipping in spirit and in truth, his heart moved to tears with such deep gratitude and joy - and shouting the most profound truth there is for all humanity:
“CHRISTOS ANESTI!”
1 Corinthians 15:19-25 (NIV)
“If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. 20 But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. 22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. 23 But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when He comes, those who belong to Him. 24 Then the end will come, when He hands over the kingdom to God the Father after He has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. 25 For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet.”
The resurrection of the Christ, was just the start.
Think on these things as you consecrate yourself and prepare for your richest Easter experience yet.
Two words have lived in my heart from that Easter day back in 1966. Christos Anesti!
Galatians 2:19-20 (NIV)
"For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
Christos Anesti!
Ps Milton