Hordes of people again flocked to churches this Easter because many of them knew that they were going to hear good news.

But Easter is also terrifying news.

According to evangelist Mark, early on a Sunday morning, three women followers of Jesus made their way to a tomb to anoint his dead body.

Earlier, they had seen him being crucified “from a distance.”

When it was all over, they saw his body being laid in a tomb and a huge stone rolled over its door.

That’s our favourite perspective on death – we do all we can to keep our distance from it. We try to stay healthy, work out, and watch what we eat, all in an attempt to keep death at bay.

But occasionally it catches up to someone we love and then we know we have to face death up close.

The current spate of murders being perpetrated by followers of ISIL, Boko Haram, or al-Sabah proves that it does not matter how wealthy, well-defended or far removed we are from evil men. Terror can still find us.

Everything seems to have changed since it all started with 9-11. It remains to be seen just how much we have changed, beyond tolerating longer lines at airports or border crossings.

All the women who made their way to the tomb on the first Easter morning knew that they were something less before meeting Jesus. Mary Magdalene had her soul torn apart by seven demons.

This man called Jesus was their saviour. But now he was dead.

As they walked down the road toward the tomb, maybe one of them mentioned that the world has always been hard on saviours.

Or, like most people in deep grief, maybe said nothing as they tried to close the distance between themselves and the tomb.

Their only dilemma was how they would get the stone rolled back.

We all know about pushing against stones in life. All of us have been pushing against something for a long time.

This Easter may have found us pushing against a superior who is hard to satisfy or against the threat of being laid off in our jobs.

Maybe some of us are pushing against a marriage that seems destined for the ditch or against a disease that is between us and our dreams.

But as the first Easter story goes, even if we get rid of the huge stone, all that is waiting on the other side is death.

When the women arrived at the tomb, they were astonished to discover the stone rolled back. Walking inside, they saw an angel and were startled.

No wonder the women fled the tomb in fear.

We may not care much for death, but we understand its climax. It’s what sets the agenda for rest of life.

That is why we push so hard at life – against aging, diseases, or terrorists. We want to stay away from death as long as possible.

According to the Easter message, the point of life is not to collect as many things as possible, to hold your loved one as tightly possible, or to waste your precious few years trying to postpone death.

Easter declares the point of life is to discover a death-defying hope. That is why it is such a profound opportunity to join the women in staring at the tomb of Jesus.

Then we can stare at our own tombs of loss and death without fear.

When the Church first began, it struggled through periods of persecution for centuries.

Every week when believers gathered, they took time to embrace each other because they did not know who might be martyred for their faith before the next assembly.

They died with Christ, only to be raised to a new life with him and in him.

Only in Christ’s death and resurrection is it possible for us also to die to the old agendas and rise to a changed life, no longer crippled by fear.

The greatest catastrophe of history happened not in the First or Second World War. It took place 2,000 years ago when we crucified the Son of God.

That was the ultimate experience beyond humanity’s limit. But it was also then that history was given the possibility of resurrection.

When Jesus defeated death, he did so that we may experience something beyond our limits, to rise with him into a new life.

It’s now up to us to walk out of our own graves as new creatures.

Narayan Mitra is the pastor of Merritt Baptist Church.

The views expressed in this column don’t necessarily reflect those of the Merritt Herald and its staff. The Herald welcomes qualified writers with views on this or other faiths to submit their work to [email protected] to be considered for publication.