Scenes from an Everlasting Life

My Easter poem for 2026

Apr 02, 2026

∙ Paid

Happy Easter! I wish you and yours a blessed weekend as you remember and consider the life of Christ.

Each year I aim to write a poem to explore some what the life and death of Jesus means. Honestly, I was surprised with how this poem came to me this year and the form it took!

I was disrupted by an image of Christ climbing over bodies like the frozen dead on the pathway to Everest’s summit that we often hear about, people who didn’t make it to the top. But these bodies weren’t frozen or unmoving, not ascending either. They were tormented and miserable, bodies Christ stepped over on his descent unto hell.

Now you’re thinking, Gee, Andrew, try to stop selling me on this happy poem!

That was the inception point to this year’s Easter poem. My entry. A quick visit to theological foundations followed (Why do we say Christ “descended unto hell?”; What does 1 Peter 3 really cover?) and a stopover in the dazzling, frightening, magnificent pages of Revelation was next.

I don’t always find it easy to celebrate Easter. I feel so unprepared, so unworthy, too rushed. Even though the day looms for months, I resist walking through the emotion, the tragedy of this day of days.

How can I or anyone ever treat it properly? Must I really consider the cost, see the nail wounds, the scars and blood? I hate this day and I love it. How long should I linger in the punishing brutality of Good Friday? How quickly do I run to the empty tomb?

All of this while knowing it is finished and he is not there. For he is risen. And he is the eternal, resurrected Lord.

It’s a humbling, terrible, wondrous thing to contemplate, Easter.

So, if you approach Easter with resistance, fear, trembling, familiarity, unease, expectation, and hope, then you’re in good company.

I hope you enjoy this poem (shared first for paid subscribers, and available for everyone on Good Friday. Note: It’s best enjoyed on desktop where line breaks appear as they’re meant to appear).

Thanks for reading. And happy Easter. He is risen indeed.

~ AK