Friday of Easter Week 1 – Devotion

Text: Luke 24:1–12

There are days when hope feels like a fool’s errand. We’ve been let down before—by people, by churches, by life itself—and we learn to expect little. The women who went to Jesus’ tomb on Easter morning weren’t expecting resurrection. They came with spices, prepared to grieve. What they found instead was an empty tomb, dazzling angels, and a question that still echoes: “Why do you seek the living among the dead?” In other words: what did you think this story was going to be?
Luke’s account is rich with detail: the early morning hour, the surprise, the fear, the memory of Jesus’ words coming back to them. And when the women go to tell the apostles, their words seem like nonsense—idle talk. But Peter, perhaps remembering his own failure and longing for redemption, runs to the tomb. The entire scene is charged with reversal: the grave becomes a birthplace of hope, the disregarded women become the first evangelists, and the denier becomes a seeker again. It’s not just a story about Jesus rising—it’s about how His resurrection flips the world upside down.
If the tomb is empty, then nothing is beyond redemption. If Christ is alive, then failure is not final. That means we are free to hope again—not in vague wishes, but in a risen King who defeated death. And this hope transforms our living. We don’t have to be ruled by fear. We don’t have to define ourselves by our past. We are part of a story where dead things come to life.
So seek Him—not among dead things, not in old regrets or fading dreams, but in the living Word and in the communion of His people. Celebrate with the Church. Read the Gospels again and again. Let your imagination be baptized in resurrection. Because if Christ is risen, then your life—no matter how broken—can rise too.
Transform Our Hearts Through Prayer
Living Jesus, You walked out of the grave and turned the world on its head. We confess that we often look for hope in all the wrong places. Forgive us. Raise us with You into new life. Help us live like resurrection is real. Holy Spirit, fill our hearts with the wonder of Easter morning, and give us the courage to hope again. Let us walk as children of the dawn. Amen.