Editorial: Relive story of hope on Easter Day

As we still reel from the Christchurch and Japan earthquakes, we need more than ever to know that hope and life can come from times of death and loss.
AS YOUNG people enjoy their school holidays and workers enjoy a long weekend, people of Christian belief will be spending time in church following the story of one Jesus of Nazareth.
The sacred nature of Good Friday and Easter Day caused our forebears to decree them as days of rest from work, yet most New Zealanders today have little idea of the reasons why they get a day off, other than more time to enjoy their Easter eggs.
And this year the calendar has given us Anzac Day on the day after Easter and a royal wedding in the same week - rather a lot of commemorating and celebrating to fit in.
Good Friday and Anzac Day bring with them themes of sacrifice. On Anzac Day we honour those who have died to bring peace.
On Good Friday we remember that Jesus of Nazareth died a violent death at the hands of an oppressive regime who felt they could create peace by the sword.
The Romans of 1st-century Palestine/Israel ruled it through armies and taxes. Jesus was seen as a threat to the delicate balance of power and so was condemned to die on a cross, the common instrument of death by torture of the day.
And that would have been that, had his followers not gone to his tomb on the Sunday (being prevented by Sabbath laws from going on Saturday) and discovered it empty.
Encounters with Jesus were then variously reported as he appeared to his disciples and gave them hope that death was not the end of the story. The Christian church is founded on the belief that God defeated death and Jesus lived again. And so Easter Day is a day of great celebration, when we remind ourselves that there is always hope and that life can come again from suffering - even from death itself.
As we still reel from the Christchurch and Japan earthquakes, we need more than ever to know that hope and life can come from times of death and loss. Whether on a global or a personal level, every day we face sadness and loss, and every day we embrace joy and hope.
The Easter story takes us each year on a pilgrimage through the events of 2000 years ago. We relive them, in a way, to remind us of the pattern of life that we know - birth and love, loss, sacrifice and birth again, with new life coming even in the midst of sorrow. This year, more than ever, we need reminding of that truth.
Easter: showing now, at a church near you.
Dean Helen Jacobi, Waiapu Cathedral of St John the Evangelist.