Easter Day: An Anglican Perspective

The Feast of the Resurrection

Principal Feast, The Sunday after the Full Moon Falling on or after March 21

The Anglican calendar is ordered by a hierarchy of holy days, each carrying a different weight of observance. At the very top sit the seven Principal Feasts, the highest days of the liturgical year, taking precedence over every other day or observance. They are Easter Day, Christmas Day, Ascension Day, the Day of Pentecost, Trinity Sunday, the Epiphany, and All Saints’ Day. Easter Day stands first in the Prayer Book’s list and at the center of the Christian proclamation. It is the feast on which the Christian year turns, the day the Collect describes simply and completely as “the day of the Lord’s resurrection.” (BCP 2019, pp. 609, 688)

The date of Easter changes from year to year because it belongs to the Paschal Cycle of the Christian calendar. The BCP identifies Easter as the first Sunday after the full moon that falls on or after March 21 and provides tables for determining its date beginning on page 713. Easter Day can therefore fall no earlier than March 22 and no later than April 25. (BCP 2019, pp. 687, 713–715)

Easter is not merely the happy conclusion of the story that began at Christmas. The Incarnation, earthly ministry, Passion, Cross, and burial of Jesus move toward the Resurrection, and the Resurrection reveals the victory of the crucified Lord. Paul states the stakes with startling clarity: “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.” (1 Corinthians 15:17, ESV) Christianity does not survive by treating Easter as a beautiful symbol attached to an otherwise intact faith. The apostolic Gospel announces that Jesus Christ, who was crucified, died, and was buried, bodily rose from the dead.

The Biblical Event

All four Gospels testify to the Resurrection, each with its own selection and arrangement of details. They differ in the moments emphasized, the women named, and the appearances narrated, yet their central testimony is unmistakably one. Jesus had truly died and been buried. On the first day of the week his tomb was found empty. He rose bodily from the dead and appeared to his followers.

The differences among the accounts do not require us to flatten them into one mechanically harmonized narrative before they can be trusted. Multiple witnesses naturally emphasize different details. What matters is that the Gospel testimony converges upon the same historical claim: the crucified Jesus lives.

The BCP’s Principal Service gives Year A two Gospel options: John 20:1–10(11–18) or Matthew 28:1–10. John brings Mary Magdalene to the tomb while it is still dark. She sees the stone removed and runs to Peter and the disciple whom Jesus loved. The two disciples enter the tomb and discover the linen cloths lying there. John notes that the face cloth that had been on Jesus’ head was not lying with the linen cloths but was folded up in a place by itself. The beloved disciple “saw and believed.” (John 20:8, ESV) If verses 11–18 are included, Mary remains at the tomb and encounters the risen Jesus himself, recognizing him when he calls her by name.

Matthew 28 brings Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to the tomb, where an angel announces, “He is not here, for he has risen, as he said.” (Matthew 28:6, ESV) As the women go to tell the disciples, Jesus meets them. They take hold of his feet and worship him. The empty tomb and the bodily encounter belong together.

Year B appoints Mark 16:1–8. Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome arrive with spices and wonder who will roll away the stone. Instead they find it already moved and hear the announcement, “You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here.” (Mark 16:6, ESV) The earliest surviving manuscripts of Mark conclude with the women fleeing in trembling and astonishment. The ending is striking. Resurrection is not initially received as something tame or easily absorbed. The news overwhelms them.

Year C appoints Luke 24:1–12. The women find the tomb open and encounter two men in dazzling clothing who ask, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.” (Luke 24:5–6, ESV) They had come carrying spices for a corpse. Easter overturns the assumption with which they approached the tomb. Jesus no longer belongs among the dead.

Raised Bodily from the Dead

The Resurrection of Jesus is not merely the survival of his soul, the continuation of his influence, or the revival of his teaching in the hearts of his disciples. Nor is it simply another resuscitation like the raising of Lazarus. Lazarus returned to ordinary mortal life and would die again. Jesus rises into a life over which death no longer has dominion. Paul writes, “We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.”(Romans 6:9, ESV)

The risen Jesus is bodily continuous with the Jesus who was crucified. His wounds remain. He can be touched. He eats with his disciples. Mary recognizes his voice. Thomas is invited to see his hands and his side. The disciples eat breakfast with him beside the Sea of Galilee. Yet his risen life is also transformed. John tells us that Jesus came and stood among disciples gathered behind locked doors, and the New Testament is equally clear that he is no longer subject to death or decay.

Article IV of the Thirty-Nine Articles states the Anglican confession without ambiguity: Christ “did truly rise again from death, and took again his body, with flesh, bones, and all things appertaining to the perfection of Man’s nature.” Anglican doctrine therefore leaves no room for reducing Easter to metaphor or private religious experience. The Jesus who died truly rose in the humanity he had assumed.

Christian hope consequently concerns more than the immortality of the soul. The Resurrection of Jesus is the beginning and pledge of the resurrection of the dead. Paul calls Christ “the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” (1 Corinthians 15:20, ESV) His Resurrection is not an isolated exception. What has happened to Christ promises what God will finally do for those who belong to him. The same Christian faith that confesses that Jesus rose bodily therefore looks forward to “the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.”

The Resurrection and the Cross

Easter does not reverse Good Friday as though the Cross had been a mistake that God subsequently repaired. The death and Resurrection of Jesus belong to one saving work. The Crucified One who rises is the same Son who willingly offered himself for sinners, and the Resurrection vindicates the one who was rejected and reveals the victory accomplished through his obedient death.

This is why the Easter proclamation never leaves the Cross behind. Peter preaches that Jesus was put to death by hanging him on a tree and then declares, “but God raised him on the third day and made him to appear.” (Acts 10:40, ESV) Paul similarly summarizes the Gospel by saying that Christ died for our sins, was buried, and was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures. (1 Corinthians 15:3–4) The apostolic proclamation refuses to choose between Cross and Resurrection.

The Cross is where Christ offers himself once for all for sinners. The Resurrection does not add a missing payment to that sacrifice. It is the Father’s vindication of the Son, the defeat of death, and the beginning of the new creation. The one who cried “It is finished” is the one whom death could not hold.

The Easter Day Lectionary

The BCP gives Easter Day unusually rich liturgical provision. The Great Vigil, when observed, is the first liturgy of Easter Day. The lectionary then provides distinct readings for an Early Service, a Principal Service, and an Evening Service. (BCP 2019, pp. 581, 723)

The Early Service is the same in all three years. An Old Testament lesson is chosen from among the Great Vigil lessons, followed by Psalm 114, Romans 6:3–11, and Matthew 28:1–10. Romans gives the service its baptismal depth: Christians have been buried with Christ through Baptism so that, as Christ was raised from the dead, “we too might walk in newness of life.” (Romans 6:4, ESV) Matthew then brings the women to the empty tomb and to their encounter with the risen Jesus.

The Principal Service varies by year more substantially than a simplified listing might suggest. In Year A, the first reading is Acts 10:34–43 or Exodus 14:10–14, 21–31. Psalm 118:14–17, 22–24 follows. The next reading is Colossians 3:1–4 or Acts 10:34–43, and the Gospel is John 20:1–10(11–18) or Matthew 28:1–10.

In Year B, the first reading is Acts 10:34–43 or Isaiah 25:6–9. Psalm 118:14–17, 22–24 follows. The next reading is Colossians 3:1–4 or Acts 10:34–43, and the Gospel is Mark 16:1–8.

In Year C, the first reading is Acts 10:34–43 or Isaiah 51:9–11. Psalm 118:14–17, 22–24 follows. The next reading is Colossians 3:1–4 or Acts 10:34–43, and the Gospel is Luke 24:1–12.

The Evening Service is the same in all three years: Daniel 12:1–3, Psalm 136, 1 Corinthians 5:6–8, and Luke 24:13–35. The risen Christ meets the disciples on the road to Emmaus, opens the Scriptures to them, and is recognized in the breaking of the bread.

The abundance is fitting. Easter cannot be reduced to a single image or text. The feast gives us creation and deliverance, the empty tomb and the bodily risen Lord, apostolic testimony and baptismal newness, Scripture opened and Christ known in the breaking of bread.

Apostolic Witness

Acts 10:34–43 occupies a prominent place in the Principal Service, being available in all three years either as the first reading or as the reading in the position ordinarily occupied by the Epistle. Peter is preaching in the house of Cornelius, and his sermon displays the shape of apostolic Resurrection proclamation.

Peter tells what God did through Jesus of Nazareth, speaks plainly of the Crucifixion, and then declares, “God raised him on the third day and made him to appear.” He adds that the risen Jesus appeared to witnesses chosen beforehand by God, “who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.” (Acts 10:40–41, ESV)

That last detail matters because the Resurrection is proclaimed as an event witnessed in embodied ways. The apostles did not merely develop an inward conviction that Jesus somehow remained spiritually alive. They encountered the risen Lord. They saw him, heard him, touched him, and ate with him. The Gospel they carried into the world was testimony concerning something God had done in history.

Christian faith receives that apostolic witness. None of us stood outside Joseph’s tomb on the first Easter morning, but the Church has received the testimony of those whom the risen Christ appointed as witnesses. John explains the purpose of his Gospel in precisely these terms: “These are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” (John 20:31, ESV)

Raised with Christ

Colossians 3:1–4 is one of the Principal Service options in every year and begins, “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.” (Colossians 3:1, ESV)

The language is deliberately startling. Paul speaks of Christians as people who have already been raised with Christ even though the resurrection of their bodies still lies ahead. Union with Christ means that resurrection life has already invaded the present. The final bodily resurrection remains future, but the new creation has begun in those who belong to the risen Lord.

Romans 6, appointed at the Early Service and at the Great Vigil, makes the sacramental connection explicit. Through Baptism Christians are united with Christ in his death and Resurrection and therefore called to “walk in newness of life.”(Romans 6:4, ESV) This does not mean that the final promise has already been exhausted. Christians possess new life in Christ now while still awaiting the resurrection of the body at the last day.

This keeps Easter from becoming merely an anniversary. Christians do not simply remember that something wonderful once happened to Jesus. They belong to the risen Lord and are called to live accordingly. Sin no longer possesses the unquestioned mastery it once claimed. Death remains an enemy, but it is a defeated enemy. Christian life is lived between Christ’s Resurrection and the bodily resurrection he has promised to those who are his.

Grace comes first. We do not live differently in order to make ourselves people of the Resurrection. God joins sinners to Christ and gives new life. Because that life has been given, we are called to walk in it.

Psalm 118 and the Rejected Stone

Psalm 118:14–17, 22–24 is appointed at the Principal Service in every year and gives Easter one of its most familiar lines: “This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” (Psalm 118:24, ESV) Yet that joy belongs to a larger biblical pattern.

The Psalm declares, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” (Psalm 118:22, ESV) Jesus himself cites this verse during his final week in Jerusalem in the context of his rejection. On Easter morning the pattern becomes unmistakable. The one rejected, condemned, abandoned, and crucified has been vindicated by God.

Easter is therefore not generic optimism about life overcoming difficulty. It is the Resurrection and vindication of Jesus Christ. The rejected stone has become the cornerstone. The Church rejoices because God has acted decisively in his Son.

The BCP 2019 Collects and Proper Preface

The first Collect appointed for Easter Day on page 609 begins by confessing what God has already accomplished: “Almighty God, who through your only-begotten Son Jesus Christ overcame death and opened to us the gate of everlasting life.” It then asks that those who celebrate with joy the day of the Lord’s Resurrection may, “by your life-giving Spirit, be delivered from sin and raised from death.” (BCP 2019, p. 609)

The movement is characteristically Christian. God acts first. Christ overcomes death and opens the gate of everlasting life. On that accomplished foundation, the Church asks that the victory of Christ be brought to its promised fulfillment in us.

A second Collect is provided on page 610. It prays to the God who gave his only-begotten Son to die upon the Cross and “by his glorious resurrection delivered us from the devil and the power of death,” asking for grace to die daily to sin so that we may live with Christ in the joy of his Resurrection. (BCP 2019, p. 610)

The two prayers belong together. Easter announces an objective victory accomplished in Christ, and on that basis asks God to make his people participants in the life Christ has won. The initiative remains God’s from beginning to end.

The Proper Preface of Easter gives a compact summary of the Paschal mystery. It praises God for “the glorious resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord,” confesses Christ as the true Paschal Lamb who was offered for us and has taken away the sin of the world, and declares that by his death he destroyed death and by his rising to life again won for us everlasting life. (BCP 2019, p. 154)

The Proper Preface of Easter accompanies Easter Day and much of the season that follows. The BCP appoints other Proper Prefaces where appropriate, including the Proper Preface of the Ascension beginning on Ascension Day. The Eucharistic praise of the season therefore follows the movement from Resurrection through Ascension and toward Pentecost rather than using one Preface without exception throughout all fifty days.

Easter in Anglican Worship

White is fittingly used for Easter Day and the festal celebration of the Resurrection, expressing joy, victory, light, and the glory of the risen Christ. This is customary Anglican liturgical practice rather than a universal color rubric supplied by the BCP 2019 itself.

The transition is especially dramatic when Easter begins at the Great Vigil. Holy Saturday’s restraint gives way to fire and light, the Easter Acclamation, the restored Alleluia, Baptism or the Renewal of Baptismal Vows, and the Holy Eucharist. The liturgy does not merely say that the Resurrection changes everything. The whole visual and ceremonial character of worship changes around the announcement that Christ is risen.

The Paschal Candle, first lit at the Vigil, should be lit at all principal services throughout the Season of Easter. The BCP also notes its traditional use throughout the year at Holy Baptism and the Burial of the Dead. The symbolism is fitting in both places. At Baptism, the Church proclaims new life in the risen Christ. At burial, she proclaims Resurrection hope in the face of death. 

The Easter Acclamation expresses the feast in its simplest form: “Alleluia! Christ is risen!” The Church answers, “The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!” The exchange is not religious enthusiasm searching for an object. It is confession. Christian joy begins with the announcement that the crucified Jesus lives.

Every Sunday shares in this Resurrection character. The BCP itself explains that the sequence of Sundays depends upon Easter because every Sunday celebrates our Lord’s Resurrection from the dead. The Lord rose on the first day of the week, and the Church gathers on the Lord’s Day as a people whose worship is permanently shaped by Easter. Easter Day is the great annual center of what every Sunday proclaims. 

The Great Fifty Days Begin

Easter Day begins the Season of Easter, traditionally called the Great Fifty Days, extending through the Day of Pentecost. Lent prepared the Church for Easter through forty days of penitence and fasting. Easter now forms the Church through a longer season of Resurrection joy.

That proportion is worth noticing. The Christian calendar does not allow Easter to become a brief reward at the end of a difficult Lent. The Resurrection opens a sustained feast in which the Church learns what it means to live because Christ has conquered death.

The ordinary Friday fast is suspended during the fifty days of Eastertide. The Prayer Book explicitly exempts these Fridays from its ordinary year-round Friday fasting pattern, even while Rogation Days and other particular observances retain their own place in the calendar. Easter joy therefore has a bodily as well as a verbal expression: the fast gives way to feast. 

The season moves from the Resurrection appearances toward the Ascension and then the Day of Pentecost. The risen Christ appears to his disciples, ascends to the Father, and pours out the Holy Spirit upon his Church. These events are distinct, but they belong to the one unfolding Paschal victory of the exalted Christ.

Easter Day therefore begins a movement rather than simply concluding one. The empty tomb opens the Great Fifty Days.

Observing This Feast

Easter Day always falls on a Sunday and, as a Principal Feast, takes precedence over every other day or observance. The Collects are found on pages 609–610, and the Easter Day lectionary is on page 723 of the BCP 2019. Where possible, begin the feast with the Great Vigil, which the Prayer Book identifies as the first liturgy of Easter Day. Where the Vigil is not offered, gather with the Church for the principal Easter Eucharist and hear again the proclamation upon which Christian faith rests.

Read the texts appointed for the year rather than assuming that Easter uses one fixed set. In Year A, the Gospel may be John 20:1–10(11–18) or Matthew 28:1–10. In Year B it is Mark 16:1–8, and in Year C Luke 24:1–12. Psalm 118:14–17, 22–24 remains constant at the Principal Service, placing the Resurrection within the biblical proclamation that the rejected stone has become the cornerstone. 

Read Acts 10:34–43 when it is used and hear Peter testify that the apostles ate and drank with Jesus after he rose from the dead. Read Colossians 3:1–4 when appointed and consider what it means that those who belong to Christ have been raised with him and that their life is now hidden with Christ in God. Read the alternative Old Testament lesson where it is chosen and see how the Resurrection stands within the whole saving history of God.

Receive the Eucharist with Resurrection thanksgiving. The Lord whose tomb was found empty is the same Lord who instituted the Sacrament before his Passion and who now lives forever. Let the restored Alleluia be more than seasonal decoration, and let the Paschal greeting become the confession around which the entire day turns: Christ is risen, and because he is risen, death does not have the final word.

Conclusion

Easter Day stands at the heart of the Christian proclamation because the empty tomb announces that Jesus Christ has done what no merely human teacher, prophet, ruler, or religious founder could do. He entered death and came through it victorious. The body laid in Joseph’s tomb was raised. The Crucified One lives, and death no longer has dominion over him.

Paul therefore refuses to allow the Resurrection to become optional. If Christ has not been raised, Christian faith is futile and sinners remain in their sins. But Christ has been raised, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. The once-for-all sacrifice of the Cross has been vindicated, death has been defeated, the gate of everlasting life has been opened, and those who belong to Christ have been given a living hope reaching beyond the grave.

The Church therefore does not merely remember Easter. She lives from it. The first Collect asks that the God who overcame death through his Son would, by his life-giving Spirit, deliver us from sin and raise us from death. Psalm 118 supplies the feast’s joyful response: “This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” (Psalm 118:24, ESV) The reason for that joy is the confession the Church has carried from the empty tomb into every generation since: Alleluia! Christ is risen. The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!