Once they were a shattered people - the women who had stood at the foot of the cross and seen their loved one die.

Once they were a broken people - those disciples who had become lost souls running scared, betraying their Lord, losing their religion through fear.

But then they came to the tomb - and saw he was not there. 

Then they recalled what he had said about himself - that after his crucifixion, on the third day he would rise again. And then the truth of the resurrection hit them; that Jesus was alive, just as he had said he would be. In those moments of realisation the power of the resurrection changed them; hearts full of amazement, heads spinning with the greatest reality-check in human history, their lives began again.

Now they were a people - they had become Resurrection People. The first of many generations.

I believe we are a group of Resurrection People. For that is each one of us who have opened our hearts to the life-changing truth that Jesus, the crucified man, the resurrected Lord, loves us; that is each one of us who have opened our minds to the possibilities available to us in journeying through life with him.

Resurrection People get the point of Jesus. The point that because he has overcome the forces of evil in the world, Christ has put an end to death; the point that because he came back to life after taking all the world could throw at him, there is no death in Christ, only life - and that is our experience, those who embrace him and follow him.

Yes, Resurrection People are unstoppable!

Resurrection People stare death in the face and create life:

• I’m thinking of those who have a terminal illness but who give their time and energy to counselling and supporting others who are ill themselves - by volunteering in hospices.

• I’m thinking of those who have turned their losses into opportunities - those made redundant later in life who’ve picked themselves up, dusted themselves down, reassessed their potential and started a new kind of work altogether.

• I’m thinking of those who give their lives as medical missionaries or as peacemakers, healers and reconcilers in deeply conflicted parts of the world.

Resurrection People get the point of Jesus. The point that there is no death in Christ, only life. I’m thinking of St Paul who famously wrote, ‘As all die in Adam, all will be made alive in Christ’. 

You and me, we are Resurrection People. These words may sometimes seem to us an idle tale, we may find it hard to believe them. But it is true. 

So go back to that tomb, look for that body, let the amazing truth dawn on you, and today, this week, this year and forever, embrace the life of Jesus, live the resurrection.