It is exciting to read about the dramatic events the disciples experienced on that first Easter morning. Simon Peter and the "other disciple" witness the empty tomb and one "believes." Mary Magdalene lingers at the abandoned tomb and actually encounters the risen Christ. But if John's gospel narrates the first Easter story, this week's Colossians text (3:1- 4) highlights for later generations of believers the paradox that all Christians must embrace on every Easter morning.

In Colossians 2:20, Paul contends that his readers have already "died" with Christ. Now in 3:1 he asserts that those who have "died" have also been "raised with Christ." Paul assumes that his Colossian readers have participated in these experiences of death and life at the event of their own baptisms. Having experienced…