Several hundred years before the birth of Jesus, a crucial battle occurred between the Greeks and the Persians upon the plains of Marathon. The battle raged for hours. In many respects it was a fight to the finish. Finally the numerically inferior Greeks, the underdogs, managed a tremendous tactical win, but there was a problem. Soon the Senate, many miles away in Athens, was to vote and would most certainly ratify a treaty of appeasement. In desperation they sent a runner in full battle gear to go the twenty-seven miles to tell of the news. By the time the young boy got to Athens he had run a Marathon. It is said he was totally spent, that he literally ran himself to death. In his exhaustion he was able to utter only one word to the Athenians: "Victory."

Today we come to church with the sound of the Hallelujah Chorus still resonating in our ears. We have been to the empty tomb. We have heard the glad news of resurrection. And now it is time for the church to send a message back to the world. What should that message be? May I suggest that it could be a single word: Victory.

Unfortunately, that single truth is not so self-evident to many people today even as it was not initially to the first century disciples. We fall short of victorious living. We must learn anew to live out the reality of the resurrection.