We have arrived at our culminating Holy Week service: Easter morning. One word perfectly sums up this service: joy!

Having walked with Jesus through the suffering, pain, and anguish of this week, the celebration of the Easter service is all the sweeter. Experiencing the weight of our sin and the cost of Jesus’ sacrifice on Good Friday gives us all the more reason to rejoice at Jesus’ ultimate victory. We recognize the depth of the darkness from which Jesus has saved us. We also rejoice in what we are saved for: eternal life with the Lord. Through Jesus’ final victory, the victory over death itself, we are able to be with God forever. We will not be with God simply in a metaphorical or ethereal way—no, we are promised that we will share in Jesus’ resurrection. We will be able to physically walk with Jesus in our heavenly home.

The palpable joy in this service comes from being in the presence of the Lord and is a taste of the heavenly joy we will one day experience in fullness. This service invites us to enter into this glimpse of heaven with childlike faith and to revel in the joy of being with God and in his power. Dance and proclaim that the Lord is good and that the Lord has done it: he has won the victory!