FORT KNOX, Ky. – Typically held outdoors, chaplains on April 3 decided to move this year’s Easter Sunday sunrise service at Fort Knox inside Main Post Chapel due to the threat of inclement weather.
The rain never showed.
By 7 a.m. the night sky turned purple as more than 50 people entered the chapel. Thirty minutes later, rich purple turned to sky blue as the sunrise warmed ornate stained-glass windows with golden light while attendees sang praise songs, prayed and celebrated the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
“We’ve had many opportunities to remember the love, the grace and mercy – the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ,” said Chaplain (Col.) Matthew Kreider, Fort Knox Garrison chaplain. “The road from ‘Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord,’ to ‘Hallelujah, He is risen,’ is fraught with suffering.
“It’s a long road. Hopefully this week you’ve had an opportunity to slow down, and to mark that journey.”
New U.S. Army Cadet Command Commander Brig. Gen. Sean Crockett welcomed everybody to the service, followed with prayer by V Corps Chaplain (Col.) Masaki Nakazono. Chaplain (Maj.) John Silvey, of Cadet Command, led the congregation in various hymns as Chaplain (Col.) Jerry Hall, command chaplain of U.S. Army Recruiting Command, read a resurrection account found in Luke 24:1-12.
Kreider spoke for over 20 minutes about the significance of that first Easter sunrise. He connected the snuffing out of two Good Friday candles – which marked the possible day of Jesus’ crucifixion and death – with the relighting of them before the start of the sunrise service.
“How wonderful to come and see the candles are lit again, because He is alive,” said Kreider. “He is indeed alive.”
Kreider recalled a memory from his childhood when he and his mother had witnessed a funeral. He asked her why so many people were crying.
“My mother patiently answered my question by explaining to me, ‘Death is final. Death is the end,’” said Kreider. “She patiently told me that these people were crying because they would never again see their loved one, and they would miss him.”
The women on that first Resurrection Sunday understood this same inevitability and finality of death, said Kreider, when they arrived at the tomb of Jesus to preserve his body with spices and ointments.
When the women instead found the tomb empty at dawn and were confronted by angels, and then later by the risen Jesus himself: “They went and told somebody – ‘He’s alive. He’s risen, just as he said. He’s alive! He’s not dead. He. Is. ALIVE!’ —
“That’s an amazing truth.”
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