It began in the dark, that first Easter morning.

The dark of betrayal, and suffering – the dark agony of unbelievable, unexpected loss. The dark of death. It was the kind of darkness that leaves a pit in your stomach, confusion in your mind, and fear in your heart.

The kind of darkness where you can’t see straight; a time so dark that even the Messiah begins to look like the gardener, and today begins to look like yesterday, and tomorrow doesn’t even matter. But it didn’t end there.

The darkness became light. Fear became joy. Death became life. Jesus was alive and not dead. Those early disciples didn’t understand what had happened any better than many of us do today. But somehow it was enough. Jesus was alive. And they knew it. They could feel his presence. And for many even today that incredible, wondrous mystery continues.

There are many ways to characterize the message of Easter. One such characterization that has long intrigued me came from a young man who summed up the message of Easter, as “what you see isn’t all you get.” More proper theological minds have described the message as “death is swallowed up in victory” (1 Corinthians 15:54), or in words immortalized by Handel, “I know that my redeemer liveth.”