Easter Stories, Poem and Prayers

Easter Prayer of Thanks by Max Lucado

Heavenly Father, thank you for sending your Son to earth as a baby so many years ago. Thank you that He paid the punishment for my sins by dying on the cross. And thank you that He rose again to prove that death was truly defeated. I place my trust in You to be my Savior. Guide me through the dark times of my life and give me courage to live for You. Amen

An Easter Poem ~anonymous

Of all of God’s gifts
Easter shows us our fate
Forgiven we will rise
And pass through Heaven’s gate

This Easter remember
The sacrifice of a Son
And through His resurrection
Eternal life we have won

This Easter I pray
That the love of God
Is resurrected
Reborn, renewed
Inside your heart
God Bless You!

Easter Sunday prayer

O Lord,

How amazing is your love,
A love that overcomes, endures and redeems.
How astounding is your life,
A life that sustains, heals and creates.
How awesome is your hope,
A hope that promises, restores and inspires.
How absorbing is your truth,
A truth that releases, changes and rebuilds.

How we worship you, as we remember the moment when your love conquered.
When out of the cave of sorrow Jesus arose to release forgiveness to the world.
And each time we encounter this resurrection day we are again lifted to an eternal place.
Our sin, brokenness and darkness fall away and your light and peace flood our lives.
How we thank you for this incredible celebration we call Easter.
Amen.

A prayer for Good Friday

Jesus,
Today we pause to remember your sacrificial love
That shone light into the darkness
That bore life from such emptiness
That revealed hope out of devastation
That spoke truth through incrimination
That released freedom in spite of imprisonment
And brought us forgiveness instead of punishment.

Thank you that we can now walk in the light of your life,
Hope, truth, freedom and forgiveness,
This day and everyday. Amen.

The Ragman by Walter Wangerin, Jr.

I saw a strange sight. I stumbled upon a story, a story of death and resurrection. Allow me a few moments to share it with you. Even before the dawn on Friday morning, I noticed a young man, handsome and strong, walking in the alleys of the city. He was pulling an old cart, filled with clothes; and he was calling in a clear, resonant voice, “Rags! New rags for old, I’ll take your tired, old rags. Rags!” Now this is a wonder, I thought, for the man stood six feet-four, with arms like tree limbs, hard and muscular, and his eyes flashed with brightness. Could he find no better job than this, to be a ragman in one of the rougher areas of the city? Soon the Ragman saw a woman sitting on her back porch. She was sobbing into her handkerchief, shedding thousands of tears. Her shoulders shook. Her heart was breaking. The Ragman stopped his cart. Quietly he walked to the woman and asked, “Will you give me your rag; I’ll give you another.” He slipped the handkerchief from her eyes, and laid across her palm a linen cloth so clean and new that it shined? Then as he began to pull his cart again, the Ragman did a strange thing. He put her tearstained handkerchief to his own face; and began to weep, to sob as grievously as she had done. Yet she was left behind without a tear. “Rags! Rags! New rags for old!” In a little while the ragman came across a little girl whose head was wrapped in a bandage, her eyes were blank and empty. A single line of blood ran down her cheek. Now that tall Ragman looked upon this child with pity, and he drew a lively bonnet from his cart. “Give me your rag, and I’ll give you mine.” He loosened the bandage, removed it and tied it to his own head. The bonnet he set on hers. I gasped at what I saw, for with the bandage went the wound! Against His brown ran a darker, richer flow of his own blood! “Rags, rags! I take old rags!” Cried the sobbing, bleeding Ragman. The sun was at its height by now, and the Ragman seemed more and more in a hurry. “Do you have a job?” The Ragman inquired of a man leaning against a telephone pole. “Are you crazy?” The man sneered, pulling away from the pole and revealing that the right sleeve of his jacket was empty. “So give me your jacket, and I’ll give you mine.” The one-armed man took off his jacket. So did the Ragman, and I trembled at what I saw; for the Ragman’s arm stayed in his jacket, and when the other put it on, he had two good arms, thick as tree limbs; but the Ragman had only one. By now I had to run to keep up with the Ragman. Though he was weeping uncontrollably and bleeding freely at the forehead, pulling the cart with one arm, stumbling with exhaustion, he still ran on ahead faster. I wept to see the change in this man. I hurt to see his sorrow. And yet I needed to see where he was going in such a hurry, perhaps to discover what drove him so. The little old Ragman came upon a landfill, a garbage dump. He climbed the hill. With tormented labor he cleared a little space on the hill. Then he sighed. He lay down. He pillowed his head on a handkerchief. He covered his bones with a jacket; and he died.

Oh, how I cried to witness his death! I slumped in a junked car and wailed and mourned, because I had come to love that Ragman. Every other face had faded in the wonder of this man. And when I saw that he was dead, I couldn’t keep from crying. I cried myself to sleep. I slept all the way through Saturday to Sunday. But then on Sunday morning, I was awakened by a violent light, a pure, hard, demanding light shining against my face. I looked up, and I saw the last and the first wonder of all. There was the Ragman, folding his clothes, a scar on his face, but alive! And besides that, healthy! There was no sign of sorrow, nor of age, and all the rags that he had gathered shined with cleanliness! I was in awe of the transformation, but humbled by the sorry state of my ordinary sameness. I lowered my head and trembling, for all that I had seen. I walked into the Ragman’s presence. I told him my name, and that I felt like a sorry figure next to him. Then I took off all my clothes, and I said with dear yearning in my voice, “Dress me. Dress all of me.” He dressed me. My Lord dressed me. He dressed my feet, my body; he dressed all of me. He put new rags on me. And now I glow in the sight of the Ragman, this Ragman, the Christ. AMEN