April 19, 2025
August 1, 1834, it was a sunrise to remember. People began walking in the predawn darkness, making their way to the mountain tops of islands scattered across the Caribbean. They summited the peaks in order to see the first rays of a sunrise that would mark the first day of their new freedom. It was a journey they began as slaves and one that would end as they walked down the mountain slopes in freedom.
For centuries, slavery and the slave trade had been practiced in the British Empire. The final remaining vestiges of slavery in the Empire, which were on islands of the Caribbean, were abolished in 1834. From the Bahamas in the east to Jamacia in the west, this sunrise marked the arrival of freedom granted to hundreds of thousands of enslaved people.
A new hope began replacing the dread burden of bondage. Uncertainty did lie ahead, but freedom liberated them to begin making decisions about their own futures. It was a freedom most thought they would never see. Periodic slave uprisings including the 1831 “Baptist War” in Jamaica had paved the way for the liberation of these enslaved peoples.
This was the culmination of the work of a generation of British Christian Statesmen lead by William Wilberforce. Already a powerful member of Parliament when he was converted at age 25, Wilberforce contemplated giving up Parliament to take up the pulpit. He was confronted by a group of abolitionists who helped him see that Parliament was his pulpit and the abolition of slavery was his new purpose.
Few sunrises have held such an important meaning. Few have held as much hope or have been as anticipated. It was a sunrise that many undoubtedly thought would never come. They knew the world would somehow look different by the light of this new dawn.
As significant as that sunrise was, it was not the most significant in the annals of time or eternity. Eighteen hundred years earlier there was another sunrise, a sunrise to remember.
It had been a busy week, the Passover celebration of the liberation of the Jews from slavery in Egypt was taking place. Passover lambs had been slain and a feast commemorating the freedom bought by the sacrifice of Passover lambs before the liberation in Egypt celebrated. This week in Jerusalem had seen the sacrifice of another Passover lamb, Jesus, THE LAMB OF GOD who takes away the sin of the world.
The death of this Lamb had taken His followers by surprise, even though He had been telling them for two years it was going to happen. Early on a Sunday, on the third day after his death, women came to the tomb. Expecting to find the body of their dearly departed friend, mentor and teacher, they were greeted by an empty tomb. Instead of seeing a dead body, they were greeted by a living Savior.
That resurrection marked the first day of freedom for humanity from the slavery of sin. The curse of sin was the law, and the wages of sin was death. On that day the empty tomb validated that the curse had been broken and the promises made by Jesus could be kept. Only the living can keep promises made.
This Sunday, thousands of Christians will gather before sunrise with joyful anticipation, often assembling in old church cemeteries with graves aligned facing the eastern sky waiting for the promise of the return of Christ. Believers will gather to remember that first resurrection morning. To celebrate the freedom of those who have already gone to glory and the hope of those who remain.
Like those who were looking for their first light of freedom in 1834, believers today should gather with hearts brimming with the hope of the promise that He will return in the eastern sky. An Easter sunrise is a time and place to remember, celebrate and hope in light of the empty tomb because that first one is one we should never forget.
