The Son Rises over Haiti

Zach led and participated in his final Easter sunrise service last Sunday.  We are going to miss those beautiful sunrises from the perspective of Haiti's mountaintops.

Easter has always been a scandal.  The thought of Jesus Christ rising from the dead three nights after being brutally killed offends human reason.  Just look at how our popular culture treats the concept of life after death (portrayed as everything from a "light at the end of a tunnel" to a "zombie apocalypse").  In the time of the early church the resurrection of the dead was considered equally as absurd.  Which, I imagine, is (at least) part of the reason neither Mary Magdalene or the disciples on the Emmaus Road recognized Jesus (despite the fact Jesus' disciples even witnessed Jesus raise the dead). Today many consider Christ's resurrection to be "metaphorical" or "symbolic" of the new life of faith.   However, our faith requires that the resurrection of Christ be real, or as Paul writes, we of all people are most to pitied (as delusional).
This leads me to a final article of faith, one that has kept us laboring in Haiti for the Gospel during these past twelve years.  Just as Christ was raised and glorified, so also God is raising his people in Haiti who will manifest (and are manifesting) the love and power of God in Haitian society until Christ returns again.  There are days when this faith seems tragically delusional--when corruption, strife, lawlessness, etc. seems to overcome the Good in Haiti.  But, on the side of Good is the Resurrection, the power of God to achieve decisive victory at the moment when all seems lost.  That is what I see rising over the mountains of Haiti on Easter morning.  The sun rising reminds me that the Son's rising on Easter morning will be the final word in the battle between the Gospel and human depravity.