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• We discover two things at Easter
• First, Jesus Christ has conquered death.
• Second, we have won a victory.
• Illustration: When someone jumps over a small stream, it is his victory and ours—he's given us the confidence that the stream can be jumped over.
• Illustration: When someone successfully skis down a hill, it is his victory and ours—he's given us the confidence that we can navigate the hill on skis.
• Illustration: When Olympians win a medal, they win it not just for themselves, but for their trainers, families, friends, and countries.
• Our Lord's victory is also our vindication.

• Because the women met the risen Christ, they would not spend their lives fascinated with death.
• An interesting psycho-historical proof of the resurrection is that early Christians showed no interest in the tomb.
• Christians have instead an instinct for life.
• The whole source of Christian ethics starts here.
• Jesus made a promise: "Because I live, you will live also."

• At the end our lives stands not an abyss but a person.
• On the road to Emmaus, Jesus explains the Scriptures, a history of failure.
• Jesus doesn't give these two disciples a theory to explain that history, but he gives them himself.
• Illustration: When you're in the hospital, you don't find it very helpful for someone to give you a theory as to why you're sick.
• Illustration: Job didn't find his friends' explanations much help. Only meeting God resolves his suffering.
• Jesus Christ is the resolution to Jewish history.
• Illustration: At a recent Tenebrae service, people were reminded of all the trouble spots in the world, but also that they come to a point in the Cross.
• It is Jesus Christ who makes sense out of our lives.

• The disciples' hearts burned with excitement.
• Illustration: C.S. Lewis said he was most surprised that the serious business of heaven is joy.
• Illustration: Malcolm Muggeridge became a Christian when he saw the joy of Easter on the faces of Orthodox worshippers.

• Illustration: John Updike's poem "Seven Stanzas at Easter" emphasizes the reality of the resurrection: "Let us not mock God with metaphor."
• Christ's victory is a real victory for us.