Easter
The Season of the Resurrection of Jesus
By Wesley Hill
InterVarsity Press, 116 pages, $21.99
After 40 days of being reminded of our sinfulness, fasting, remembering our impending death, and focusing on the final days leading to Christ’s Passion and death, Christians let out all the stops and celebrate Easter Day with great pomp and circumstance. But Easter, as liturgical Christians understand, is not merely one day, but a full 50-day celebration; it’s even longer than the season of penitence that precedes it.
Wesley Hill has given us a gift with Easter: The Season of the Resurrection of Jesus, part of Esau McCaulley’s wonderful Fullness of Time series. These texts are short and accessible enough for a wide readership without a sophisticated theological background, but deep and engaging enough for longtime Christians. Hill’s book does not disappoint.
Beginning with a description of his first experience of an Easter Vigil liturgy at Durham Cathedral, Hill jumps off into a multifaceted meditation on the meaning of our Lord’s resurrection. He first looks at the Easter narratives from the four Gospels. These do not simply recount the details of the story, but also tease out some meaning behind the different perspectives. In Matthew, “Jesus, the one who is on the loose and goes ahead of his followers, makes himself visible to them.” In Luke, the Easter story concludes with the Ascension. In John—“in many ways the most intimate and beloved of all four”—the story of Peter’s denial and restoration plays a role.
But the story of Jesus’ resurrection doesn’t end in first-century Israel. The resurrection of Jesus is made real and applied to each of us in our baptism. As one would expect from a Pauline scholar like Hill, he turns to the theology of Paul to explain that “what happened with Jesus will also include us.”
After briefly describing the development of Easter (and the calculation of its date), he looks at some of the practices surrounding the celebration: festivities, not kneeling, sumptuous meals, and “stations of light.” The point here is that Easter is a season of grace, which produces joy and light.
The remainder of Hill’s text is taken up with implications and conclusions drawn from the reality of Life himself conquering death. The reading of the Acts of the Apostles in the lectionary for Eastertide shows that the first Christians understood their paschal lives to be active. “Acts is the story of the aftermath of Easter,” he writes. Those who are united to Christ’s death and resurrection in baptism are called to Christ’s mission and to proclaiming his victory. Finally, Easter briefly examines the much-overlooked feast of the Ascension and concludes with an introduction to Pentecost, the subject of the next book in the series.
Hill’s book will certainly be a welcome tool for priests who want to provide a concise explanation of the season and doctrine of Easter to their people, but one that is theologically rich and spiritually formative. While reflecting excellent scholarship, it is accessibly and beautifully written and provides a warm invitation to rejoice in the cosmos-altering claim: “Alleluia! Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!”
The Rev. Geoffrey Mackey is the rector of Trinity Church in Parkersburg, West Virginia.
The Rev. Geoffrey Mackey is rector of Trinity Episcopal Church, Parkersburg, West Virginia. He spent over 20 years in Christian college and seminary contexts in administration, teaching, and student pastoral care. He studied at evangelical, Catholic, and Anglican seminaries and previously served as a parish priest in the Catholic Church’s Byzantine Rite.
