It’s true every time we preach, but especially on Easter Sunday. It’s great to land the last line. Some people regularly finish with a bang, a really pregnant final sentence that absolutely nails it. Others among us struggle for consistency with the finish. It’s always easy to fizzle to a close or to stick on a generic statement like, “So that’s why it’s an interesting passage.” But that last line can really hang in the air, linger in the memory and stick in the heart.

As I’ve written before, the best time to plan the end is before you preach. Trying to pull a stunning conclusion out of mid-air is almost always a wasted effort. Sunukjian makes the suggestion that the concluding statement should be positive rather than negative, and a statement rather than a question. Perhaps I’ll share more on his suggestions another time. If in doubt, it is usually a great place to restate the main idea one last time.

So before preaching the Easter Sunday message, try to take a couple of minutes and run through the final few lines. What a great day to land a last line really well!