The Easter message is: “He is not here; He has risen, just as He said.”
As a pastor, I told the following well-known story many times over the years. May it bring great encouragement to each of you as you ponder its message.
In the year 1815, the Duke of Wellington, Arthur Wellesley, led the English forces against those of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo.
News of the history-making battle came by way of a sailing vessel, signaling with coded flags. The signalman atop London’s Winchester Cathedral received the flag signal who then passed it on to another man on a hill, and in this way, the news of the battle’s progress was relayed from station to station. At battle’s end, the signalman atop Winchester Cathedral began to spell out the eagerly awaited message: Wellington defeated…” and just then a dense fog settled in — and the heartbreaking news of Wellington’s defeat quickly spread through London then across England.
Great gloom settled all over the countryside. In about three hours, however, the fog lifted, and the signal came again: “Wellington defeated — the enemy!” Then all of England rejoiced!
There was that day, when they put the body of the Lord Jesus in the tomb, the message that appeared to be “Christ defeated.” But three days later the fog lifted.
