Easter Sunday 2025: Expectant

TO START: Easter is the season when we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. In a world where expecting the worst often feels like the default way of life, the news of Easter dismantles despair, throws open the door to hope, and reorients us to view even life's most difficult circumstances through a hopeful lens. 

The resurrection doesn’t promise the absence of disappointments or hardships, but it calls us to live expectantly—not only for resurrection power at the end of time, but for glimpses of it breaking into the present as the Spirit of Jesus accompanies and partners with us. Happy Easter!

READ: Mark 16:1-20

DISCUSS:

(1.) What story—whether from a book, movie, or another medium—could you experience over and over again without ever getting tired of it?

(2.) Where in your life do you tend to expect the worst or feel deep disappointment is inevitable?

(3.) The conclusion of Mark’s Gospel includes an extended ending. When you think about your gut reaction to the empty tomb, do you resonate more with the shorter ending in Mark 16:8 or the extended ending in Mark 16:9–20?

(4.) The description of the large stone already rolled away is a beautiful word-picture depicting how the resurrection shows God taking care of the biggest obstacles in front of us — including our fragility, our need for forgiveness, and our longing for a complete future. Which of these three hopes or implications do you think about the most when you hear that the resurrection is good news?

(5.) Re-read Mark 16:15–18. Jesus promises that all who believe in him will experience his accompaniment and partnership. In what ways has the resurrection of Jesus expanded your imagination of what is possible in His name?

PRAYER: We invite you to close with this simple prayer to end your gathering together:

“God, may we feel the warm embrace of your love on this sacred day. May the glory of Jesus’s resurrection remind us that with You, nothing is impossible or without hope. We pray in your name. Amen.”