Becoming terrified, they bowed their faces down to the earth. The men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He isn’t here, but is risen. Remember what He told you when He was still in Galilee,
Easter is the center of the Christian year. These passages follow the story from Good Friday to the empty tomb and then to what the resurrection meant to the first Christians. Each one links to its full chapter so it can be read in context.
How to use this collection
- For a card or message: Matthew 28:5–6 and 1 Peter 1:3 are short and complete.
- For a service or family reading: read the Gospel passages in order, then one of the letters.
- For reflection: read John 20:15–16 slowly. Mary recognizes Jesus not by sight but when He speaks her name.
A note on the Gospel accounts
The four Gospels tell the Easter morning story with different details — the number of women and angels, the order of appearances. Christians have generally read these as independent witnesses rather than a single script; the shared core is that the tomb was empty and that Jesus appeared to His followers. Paul’s summary in 1 Corinthians 15:3–4, written within about twenty-five years of the events, is the earliest written account.
The passages
But He was pierced for our transgressions.
He was crushed for our iniquities.
The punishment that brought our peace was on Him;
and by His wounds we are healed.
Read on Good Friday in many churches: the servant wounded for others’ transgressions.
It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour. The sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was torn in two. Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit!” Having said this, He breathed His last.
Jesus’ last words in Luke: “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.”
When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, He said, “It is finished!” Then He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.
“It is finished” — in John, a word of completion rather than defeat.
The angel answered the women, “Don’t be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus, who has been crucified. He is not here, for He has risen, just like He said. Come, see the place where the Lord was lying.
The angel to the women at the tomb: “He is not here, for He has risen.”
Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Who are you looking for?” She, supposing Him to be the gardener, said to Him, “Sir, if You have carried Him away, tell me where You have laid Him, and I will take Him away.” Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to Him, “Rabboni!” which is to say, “Teacher!”
Mary Magdalene recognizes Jesus when He says her name.
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me will still live, even if he dies. Whoever lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”
Spoken before Lazarus was raised; read at Easter as the meaning of the resurrection.
For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
The earliest written summary of the Easter message, which Paul says he “received.”
But now Christ has been raised from the dead. He became the first fruit of those who are asleep.
Christ the “first fruits” — the first of a harvest still to come.
We were buried therefore with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.
Baptism and new life; many churches baptize at the Easter Vigil.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
A “living hope” through the resurrection.
