Jesus, who was bloodied and dead in the tomb, is risen! He is risen indeed! The scars of His crucifixion are still plain on his skin, but there is breath in His lungs and blood pumping through His veins.

In His death, we were tempted to believe that death and darkness overcame the Creator of the world. Even now, we may be tempted to believe that this virus will overcome us — our economy, our families, our jobs, our homes, our health, and more. These threats are as real as Jesus’ crucifixion.

But our Kind King is risen indeed. In the most mysterious reality, He ascended into heaven with the same flesh and bone that the disciples touched the day He appeared to them in Jerusalem. Jesus, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, is within us, around us, before us, and behind us. We do not have to be afraid.

By His passion, death, and resurrection, we are made new. While once we were fighting a losing battle against sin, in Christ, there is victory over sin, death, and dysfunction now and in the world to come– and that changes everything. Our hearts of stone are transformed into hearts of flesh because we are not slaves to sin. As forgiven and free people, we can follow Jesus in His humble humanity.

Our kind king makes us new in His image so we can be kind too. We can feed others from our stockpiles of beans and rice. We can trust that God will do something good in the midst of this pandemic. We can trust that He will be our refuge in the midst of our suffering. We can even forgive others, just as our Jesus forgives us. Finally, we can partner with Jesus in bringing dead things to life — from relationships to gardens to patients to faith. “For God has put everything under his feet” (1 Corinthians 15:27).

Our Kind King is risen indeed. Let us weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice, but let us all keep our hope in the risen Christ!