25th April 2025

The first person to wish me a Happy Easter this past Sunday wasn’t a fellow Christian, but the smiling Asian attendant at the garage where we’d called in for one or two items on our way to church. (In passing, am I the only one who wonders whether there remains good reason for making supermarkets stay closed on Easter Sunday?) Pleasantly surprised by this turn of events, I gladly returned the greeting, and he seemed equally pleased to receive it.

The exchange ended there, but thinking about it afterwards, I wondered whether he might after all have been a fellow Christian; it wasn’t impossible. If not, was he showing the respect typical of Hindus, for example, for other people’s faith at what he knew to be a major UK religious festival? Or, again, was he simply being friendly in a culturally appropriate fashion? I’ll never know for sure, of course, but it strikes me that his greeting had echoes of the message of the angels at the empty tomb. Just in case I’d forgotten, I was being reminded that it was Easter Day, that Christ is risen! And Halleluiah for that!

The Risen Christ takes the Church as his Bride, but that doesn’t mean we have him locked up tidily in our preferred structures and practices. His resurrection means that now he’s free, let loose, to walk the highways and byways of this world, revealing himself where and how he chooses, speaking through the lips of saint, sinner, seraph or shop assistant, showing God’s love and compassion in the bold sacrifices of the brave and, more frequently, the unexpected kindnesses of strangers.

Ken Stewart