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Victory!


Victory!

Several hundred years before the birth of Jesus, a crucial battle occurred between the Greeks and the Persians upon the plains of Marathon. The battle raged for hours. In many respects it was a fight to the finish. Finally the numerically inferior Greeks, the underdogs, managed a tremendous tactical win, but there was a problem. Soon the Senate, many miles away in Athens, was to vote and would most certainly ratify a treaty of appeasement. In desperation they sent a runner in full battle gear to go the twenty-seven miles to tell of the news. By the time the young boy got to Athens he had run a Marathon. It is said he was totally spent, that he literally ran himself to death. In his exhaustion he was able to utter only one word to the Athenians: "Victory."
Easter is all about that one word: victory.

A while back, I asked my son David what Easter means to him and he said, “An empty tomb”.
I applaud his answer, however there is much more to it than that, because THE empty tomb is not just any tomb. There is an empty tomb in Egypt that dates back to the fourteenth century B.C. It is an elaborate tomb that was prepared for King Tutenkhamen's military leader Horemheb, but he was never buried there. Four years after King Tutenkhamen died, Horemheb became the pharaoh and was later buried in the Valley of the Kings at Thebes.

The Etruscans were the first known inhabitants of Italy. They were there before the Romans and had a highly developed civilization. They left no written record, no history, no poetry, and no literature. All that we know of them we have learned from their tombs.  Grave robbers have stripped these tombs bare. There are many empty Etruscan tombs.

One April, a certain Sunday school teacher asked all eight children in her class to hide within an empty film container a small object that represented life in the spring.
Not wanting to embarrass eight-year-old Stephen, whose mental retardation was becoming more manifest, the teacher suggested that the children all place their unlabeled containers on her desk. Since she feared that Stephen might not have caught on, she decided that she should open them.
The first had a tiny flower. "What a lovely sign of new life!" "I brought that one!" the donor exclaimed. Next came a rock. "That must be Stephen's," the teacher thought, since rocks do not symbolize new life. But Billy shouted that his rock had moss on it, and moss was new life. The teacher agreed.
A butterfly flew from the third container, and another child bragged that her choice was best of all.
The fourth container was empty. "That has to be Stephen's," thought the teacher, quickly reaching for the fifth.
"Please, don't skip mine!' Stephen interjected. "But it's empty." "That's right," said Stephen. "The tomb was empty, and that is new life for everyone."
Later that summer, Stephen's condition grew worse, and he died. On his casket at the funeral, mourners found eight little containers. They were all empty.

For me the victory of Easter is not an empty tomb but a risen Saviour.
Musical duo William and Gloria Gaither wrote, “Because he lives I can face tomorrow; because he lives all fear is gone. Because I know he holds the future, and life is worth the living just because he lives.”

On Saturday 17th August, 2002, suspected Basque terrorist Ismael Berasategui Escudero escaped from the high security La Sante prison in Paris.
He swapped places with his brother and it took embarrassed staff five days to discover the escape.
On Friday on the first Easter, Barabbas was on death row, condemned to die. Your Elder Brother and mine swapped places with him and was crucified instead. It took three days for the disciples to discover his death sentence had really been revoked. It has taken two thousand years since then and still many have not discovered Him.

In 1874, hymnist Robert Lowry wrote a certain hymn. I have at home a scratchy 1921 recording of it by Henry Burr and the Peerless Quartet.
When I first heard it, I laughed. I confess that at first I did not listen to the words, but was intrigued by the metrical pattern in the melody. The verses are sung very solemnly in five-part harmony and the refrain in unison is in contrast, both upbeat and joyous. As they sang on, I began to listen to the words and it was strangely moving. Here is what they sang:
“Low in the grave He lay, Jesus my Saviour, waiting the coming day, Jesus my Lord!
Vainly they watch His bed, Jesus my Saviour; vainly they seal the dead, Jesus my Lord!
Death cannot keep its Prey, Jesus my Saviour; He tore the bars away, Jesus my Lord!
And the refrain: Up from the grave He arose, with a mighty triumph o’er His foes, He arose a Victor from the dark domain, and He lives forever, with His saints to reign.
He arose! He arose! Hallelujah! Christ arose!”

Easter is all about that one word: victory.

Lionel Hartley, Easter 2014