Easter message from Iraq

“And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.” (1 Corinthians 15-14)

Yes Christ is risen, then our preaching is blessed and our faith is true.

With joy and happiness the Christian world celebrate these days the resurrection of Christ from the dead. This resurrection gave us new life and bestowed upon us a complete victory over death.

“I am the resurrection, and the life; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.” (John 11-25).

In this resurrection Jesus conquered death and broke the sting of the grave. “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” (1 Corinthians 15-55).

In this resurrection we were given courage to proclaim our faith with pride and confidence, it planted in us hope and gave us joy in the eternal life, it taught us that love will never fail and that God is love without boundaries.

While we, Iraqi Christians, share the rest of the world in welcoming this blessed occasion, as everyone else, with joy praising and glorifying the sacrosanct name of the Father.

We Iraqi Christians rejoice in the resurrection of Christ as other believers around the world do, we rejoice the victory over the deadly sin.  But, our joy is somehow different from the joy of others, it’s a joy blotted by things emanating from the sorrows of the land. However, it’s not like the sorrow of those who have no hope.

“… that you sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.” (1 Thessalonians 4-13).

There are pains that squeeze our human hearts for the departing caravans of Martyrs from our sons and daughters who have departed from us to their home in heaven as a result of the very difficult security situation that our country is passing through.

The Martyrs who had clinched to the soil of their land, until their chests received the death fired by the hands of the killers, the terrorists; so that their bodies will return back and be encompassed by the soil of their homeland, which they loved.

Our joy is blotted by the sorrow for the Martyrs of the massacre that took place at the Lady of Salvation Church in Baghdad, where scores of worshipers were slaughtered inside the church. And which was rightly considered the drama of our era.

Yes, we may encounter death in its different forms every day, but we say with full faith: we are not afraid of death; we believe that the resurrection of Christ made death a way to elevate to the heavenly glories under the umbrella of the Almighty Father. Blessed are those who are chosen by the Lord to be Martyrs for the glory of His name.

In this holy occasion, the occasion of the resurrection of Christ from the dead, we raise our prayers to the Lord to protect the church of Iraq and the believers, the sons and daughters, of the church of Iraq, to build a wall around them to protect them from all evil and to strengthen their faith in order to spread His word so that peace and stability may prevail in the Land of Peace, and its people may live in prosperity and tranquility under His umbrella and may Iraq enjoys His perpetual peace.

We beg the Lord who had risen from the dead for the sake of all peoples of the world, so that peace may prevail on earth in these difficult times and for all nations to live with reciprocal respect among them and continuous love among all.

Thanks to the Father for the glory that descended from heaven and flooded the earth, which renewed faith in us and bestowed upon us eternal life. Thanks to the Father for the resurrection that gave us heavenly joy no one can remove from us.

“But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept.” (1 Corinthians 15-20)

Hallelujah-Amen

Elder Saka is the moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Baghdad