How Wonderful is the Night

A Homily delivered to All Saints Anglican Church at the Easter Vigil
April 7, 2007

The Jewish Passover feast begins with this question:
Why is this Night Different from all Other Nights?
The answer is very concrete: On this night we eat matzah and bitter herbs; We dip parsely in salt water and horseradish in charoset; And we recite at the table as we eat.

In the prayers at the beginning of our service, we have an elaboration about this night:

“This is the night, when you[God]brought our fathers, the children
of Israel, out of bondage in Egypt, and led them through the
Red Sea on dry land.

This is the night, when all who believe in Christ are delivered
from the gloom of sin, and are restored to grace and holiness
of life.

This is the night, when Christ broke the bonds of death and hell, and rose victorious from the grave…


How holy is this night, when wickedness is put to flight, and
sin is washed away. It restores innocence to the fallen, and joy
to those who mourn. It casts out pride and hatred, and brings
peace and concord.

How blessed is this night, when earth and heaven are joined
and man is reconciled to God.” BCP, pg. 287.


These sentences make clear for us the connection between the Passover, which takes place at night, and the saving work of Christ, which also takes place in the dark of night, shortly before dawn. Our reading from Matthew reminds us that the women came to the tomb at early dawn and they found the tomb was already empty. This is the connection between the night of the Passover and the night of Christ’s resurrection. It’s reflective of the Jewish way of reckoning time from sunset to sunset, and is really a poetic, if not exactly literal connection. The other Gospels tell us that Christ arose at dawn, on the morning of the third day.

But this emphasis on night is why we have the Easter Vigil. It’s reminiscent of the Passover Seder in which the history of the Passover and Exodus is recounted. For the Jews, the Passover is a defining event each year. It serves to bring to mind again the great works of God in saving the Hebrew people, but it also serves to redefine and make present their heritage. It is what we call “anamnesis” – or remembrance.

But this anamnesis is not simply remembering something that happened long ago. Rather, this type of observance brings the past into the present and renews the event, making it once more Present.

And this is what we do as Christians each time we celebrate the Eucharist. We also have the heritage of the Passover and the Exodus as part of our spiritual legacy, but Jesus has now become for us our Passover, as we say in the liturgy, ‘Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us… therefore let us join the feast.’ In Jesus, our Eucharistic Feast, Heaven and earth are joined and man is reconciled with God. We too celebrate with all the saints that have ever gone before us and God makes the Passover a present event for us once more.

We also look forward to joining the Marriage feast of the Lamb in Heaven – and this too becomes present as we celebrate the feast. Heaven and earth are joined and man is reconciled with God.

We are reconciled to Him, in that our sin has been washed away, not merely covered. Our innocence before God is restored and we live in the wonderful knowledge that there is no condemnation now for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:1).

Our fears of death and hell have been overcome because Jesus “broke Hell wide open”, or as the Orthodox are wont to say, he “harrowed” hell, plundering it and spoiling the Devil’s lair.

As the first Author, God has written the story of Salvation with all the devices that modern novelists use: foreshadowing, parallelism, and typecasting, etc.. The Easter Story is meant to recall the Passover, and fulfill its ultimate message of salvation.

Thanks be to God for His wonderful creativity and for His grace in extending Salvation to us. Let us with Gladness then celebrate the beauty and different- ness of this night, rejoicing that the night of Death has become the dawn of Miracle. Amen.