Easter Play - Luke 24: 1-12

    Let us pray: On this morning O Lord, take from us all that we cling to so tightly and release us, only to reveal truth we cannot see until we let go.  Through the power of your resurrection, move us from death to life.  And now, may the words of my mouth, and the meditations of all of our hearts, be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer.  Amen.

    For part of church history, various traditions have formed around a quaint theme known as “Risus Paschalis,” which, translated from Latin, means “Easter laugh.”  Risus Paschalis was predicated on the notion that on the first Easter, God played the biggest joke in history, on none other than the devil.  God allowed the devil to kill Jesus, thereby, allowing him to think he had won, only to raise Jesus to life again on the third day.  The presumption is that God has a sense of humor and on Easter we can laugh to observe the comicality of it all.  Perhaps the person or people who came up with the idea were familiar with Plato’s words: “Even the gods love jokes.” 

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