Presiding Elder Easter Message 2012

Dear Family and Friends,

Happy Easter!

In this issue of our newsletter we are happy to introduce to you Dan Rinke, one of the stalwarts of The Servant of the Word brotherhood in North America. We will also treat you to stories about a gathering of our affiliates—those investigating a longer term commitment to the life and mission of The Servants of the Word! We hope you will enjoy reading these articles!

I would like to share with you a couple more stories. On March 17 of this year, while I was visiting The Servants of the Word brothers in the United Kingdom, a 23-year-old professional soccer player, Fabrice Muamba, suffered a cardiac arrest while playing a game in England. For 48 minutes medics tried unsuccessfully to revive Muamba as they rushed him to a London hospital. After another 30 minutes the young man’s heart started beating again after receiving 15 electric shocks. “In effect, he was dead in that time,” said the cardiologist in the hospital. Today Muamba is on his way to recovery and exhibits none of the effects one would expect of someone whose heart had stopped for well over an hour. A doctor who attended to Muamba on the field said the young man’s recovery could be described as nothing less than “miraculous.”

This is an incredible story! It brings joy to Muamba’s family, friends and fans. It brings bewilderment and amazement to those of the medical field. It brings hope to others who are suffering from heart disease and other life threatening illnesses. A man who had been dead for 78 minutes is alive once more.

Slightly over 2,000 years ago another young man, 33-year-old Jesus of Nazareth, died. He had succumbed to execution—a gruesome death brought about by being nailed to a cross. After his death a Roman soldier went a step further and pierced his heart with a lance. There was no reviving him. His friends and his mother buried this man Jesus in a tomb carved out of stone. On the third day after his death, however, Jesus rose again to full life!

An even more incredible story! It brought joy to his mother, his friends and followers. It brought bewilderment and amazement to all who witnessed it or were made aware of it. It brings hope to all of us who live now but will one day die. Jesus lived a life without falling to sin. He therefore overcame the power of death! Unlike Fabrice Muamba, Jesus will never die again! In addition, we who follow him now look forward to sharing that everlasting resurrection. We too will rise to new life and we, through Jesus, will never die again!

Yes, happy Easter! It gives me great pleasure to greet you on this feast and season of great joy!
Ken Noecker
Presiding Elder, The Servants of the Word.

This article is from our 2012 Easter Servants of the Word Newsletter [7.5MB PDF].