His Pentecost preaching speaks to every believer in every generation. As a Jew familiar with the Hebrew Scriptures he saw in Psalm 16 a prophetic reference to Jesus. This is what he proclaimed:

‘But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. David said about him: “I saw the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will live in hope, because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay. You have made known to me the paths of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence.”’ (Acts 2:24-28 quoting Ps. 16:8-11 NIV) ‘You will fill me with joy in your presence,’ writes the psalmist and announces the Spirit-filled apostle to the assembled crowd.

The gift of joy, a fruit of the victory of Jesus’ resurrection, was a gift that St Peter had in abundance and it is also the birthright of every Christian. We are a joyful people because ‘Allelluia, he is risen from the dead’ is our song. The joy of the resurrection is an important dimension of the Christian faith. We are to be known for our love but also for our joy.  

Consider this question if you will: who do you think was most joyful on the morning of the resurrection? Think about it – who do you think was the most overjoyed, the most pleased and the most excited?

Was it the apostles? Having been with Jesus for the three years of his public ministry, they had every reason to be. They had lived through so much with him and they had witnessed his miracles and signs. But where were they when the Romans crucified him? They knew first hand, too, that in Jesus’ hour of need they had fled, overwhelmed by fear and dread. Surely, they would be the most excited and the most joyful on the day he rose from the dead?
 
Or how about Mary Magdalene? She had experienced remarkable moments of sensitivity and love towards Jesus during his time on earth. She had anointed him for burial using very expensive oils. She had visited the Lord’s tomb only to discover his body was not there and had wept bitter tears of loss and sorrow. So distressed in her grief was she that, when the Lord appeared to her, she thought he was the gardener and asked him if he could tell her where Jesus’ body was buried. When Jesus revealed himself, he made himself known to Mary by using her name, ‘Mary’ (John 20:16). Then Mary recognized him immediately and cried out, ‘Rabboni!’ Can you imagine her indescribable joy in this moment? Surely she was the most excited, pleased and delighted!

But then again there is Mary, Jesus’ mother. She had borne him in her womb; she had raised him and loved him and given her life to him in his hidden years. She was with him at the foot of his cross and truly a sword had pierced her own heart. What immeasurable and wonderful joy was hers on hearing the testimony that Jesus had risen from the dead!

We do not doubt that St Peter and all the apostles, Mary Magdalene and Mary, his mother, were filled with immeasurable and indescribable joy at witnessing Jesus’ resurrection, but we humbly suggest there was one person who was more excited and more full of joy and who could pray with confidence born of experience: ‘You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence’ (Acts 2:26). He was the One who had set his face like a flint and had embraced God’s plan and purpose for his life. It was he who on the cross had carried the full burden of the sin of every person who has ever lived or ever will live. It was he who understood that cursed was the one who hung on a tree and, nevertheless, took all this on for love of his Father and love of humankind.

Jesus’ joy in his resurrection would have known no bounds. Can you imagine his joy and exhilaration as the Holy Spirit raised up his cold and lifeless body. Can you imagine the wonderful sense of God’s victory over sin, death and Satan which must have filled his heart as he burst forth from the tomb? What about the joy within the Blessed Trinity as the Father and the Holy Spirit delighted that the Son, Jesus of Nazareth, had been so faithful, so obedient and so humble as to die on the cross and be raised by the Father on the third day?

When Jesus appeared to his disciples we can almost hear this excitement in his voice as he says, ‘Why are you troubled, and why do questionings rise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; handle me, and see; for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see that I have’ (Luke 24:38-39). Was Jesus speaking these words to himself, as it were, in his exultant joy at being raised from the dead, ‘It is I myself, I have flesh and bones, I am not a spirit, I am raised from the dead’? The joy of the resurrection is, then, first and foremost Jesus’ joy.  

Was Jesus’ joy a kind of selfish joy? A joy simply in his own resurrection from the dead and his own raised and glorified humanity? No, Jesus knew that his resurrection completed the Father’s work of salvation. On the cross he offered his life in sacrificial love to his Father on our behalf that our sin might be forgiven and that death, our greatest enemy, might be put to death and conquered.

Jesus always delighted in his Father and lived to obey and please him. It was God the Father who raised him from the dead displaying to every power, authority and realm both in heaven and on earth the fruit of Jesus’ suffering and death. The resurrection is the true and lasting fruit of the cross and Jesus was the first to experience it. Jesus’ resurrection confirms that sin is indeed forgiven. Humankind has been reconciled to the Father. Death has been vanquished. Jesus’ resurrection is the assurance and guarantee of our own resurrection. He is the ‘first-born among many brethren’ (Rom. 8:29). Jesus is the ‘beginning, the first-born from the dead’ (Col. 1:18). Jesus’ resurrection joy embraced all who would believe in him, for he knew that in and through him all can be made alive. Jesus’ joy was not just for himself but for all who would believe in him.

There will come a time when Jesus will return in glory and then our own dark, cold and silent grave will burst open. On this day we will exclaim with joy and confidence, ‘It is I! I am alive! I too am risen from the dead.’ St Peter exhorts us to bless God the Father, for ‘by his great mercy we have been born anew to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and to an inheritance which is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you’ (1 Pet. 1:3-4). Through our baptism we are born into this hope, this living hope.

Our destiny and dignity is that we too will share in the very divinity of Christ and partake body and soul in the victory of the resurrection. We can be confident in our future resurrection because the Holy Spirit lives in us. As the great apostle and evangelist St Paul wrote, ‘In him you also, who have heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and have believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, which is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory’ (Eph. 1:13-14). We can live assured and confident in the hope of our resurrection because Scripture says, ‘If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit which dwells in you’ (Rom. 8:11). This Easter Sunday rejoice and praise God for Jesus’ resurrection and be joyful and assured that our joy is both in our future glory and in the present because the Holy Spirit lives in us.