Easter Week

This is Easter week. For many people this is simply "Spring Break" or "Spring Recess" or whatever other politically correct title. Whatever the schools and public institutions have agreed to call it, it is what it is and that is Easter week.

Easter is bizarre. Mostly it's bizarre because there are numerous chocolate bunnies, plastic eggs, and fake grass stuffed in baskets for people to purchase as they celebrate the resurrection of a dead man that said he was God and would prove that he's God once he was raised from death. No scholar can quite articulate how the bunny eggs and pastel wrapped candy corresponds to the reality that Jesus is still alive. The bizarre festivities associated with Easter will surely pick up as the week progresses. There will be

countless egg hunts, melted chocolate beards worn by many children, and new clothes for the whole family.

Growing up, I woke every Easter to the sight of a freshly decorated basket full of Jelly Belly's and a giant hallow chocolate bunny that I spent all day gnawing on like a dog with a bone (ears first of course). Once I peeled back the fake grass - that I'm convinced is a carcinogen - I was able to get the good stuff - individually wrapped chocolate eggs with a creamy filling. To me this was Easter. To my surprise, some years later, I would come to learn that the holiday was about Jesus rising from the dead.

Why didn't I know this? Well, I never went to church so how would I have. 

I'm very troubled by the cultural ignorance of this important holiday. I went to Raley's a couple days ago to get my beloved Roast Beef sandwich and while I was waiting for my lunch I talked with the deli worker about her Easter plans. She talked of BBQ's, candy, and Easter egg hunts. I asked her if she would be attending church at all. Her response was, "why would I do that?" I kindly replied, "Well, because it's Easter." To my surprise, she kindly dismissed the notion that church and Easter go together because she had always had a BBQ and the common festivities associated with Easter. 

I'm not sure why there is so much unknown or ignored about Easter. Perhaps because we know that Easter could be a very dangerous holiday if we were to know what really happened. If we took time to just stop and think about what it's all about there lies the potential to be confronted with the reality that there is life beyond death. Who has time for that?

This week I have been reading about Easter week in the Bible. I've been reading about the interaction of the religious leaders and Jesus; the crowds and Jesus; the disciples and Jesus. One particular interaction has struck me for three days and I can't seem to shake it. It's found in Matthew 27:41-43:

[41] So also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying, [42] “He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. [43] He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’"

 What has been so striking is that the chief priests, scribes and elders not only mocked him, but said that they would believe in Jesus if he were to get off the cross. Can you imagine the temptation Jesus must have had to get himself off the cross? But he chose to stay on the cross for our good. These mockers failed to see that he could have saved himself from the cross, but he chose to endure the cross in order that he could bring us life.

These mockers said that they would believe in Jesus if he could save himself from their torturous imposition. They even go on to say that if he were really the Son of God, that God would surely deliver Jesus. So, that would mean if Jesus is delivered then he is indeed the Son of God. And so we read in Matthew 28:9-15:

      [9] And behold, Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him. [10] Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.”
     [11] While they were going, behold, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests all that had taken place. [12] And when they had assembled with the elders and taken counsel, they gave a sufficient sum of money to the soldiers [13] and said, “Tell people, ‘His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.’ [14] And if this comes to the governor's ears, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” [15] So they took the money and did as they were directed. And this story has been spread among the Jews to this day.

What has really struck me is that once the chief priests and elders learned of Jesus' missing body they constructed a story to cover themselves. This means that those who hated Jesus and what he taught were aware that a previously occupied tomb was now unoccupied. If they wanted to squash this little uprising and prove once and for all that Jesus was not the Son of God, all they had to do was produce a body. It appears that they never did because they never could. He was alive.

If the disciples did steal the body would they have endured a similar death as Jesus to cover their lie that he was resurrected? Some disciples were decapitated, others crucified, yet others boiled alive in oil. Would they endure this for what they knew was a lie? The fact is that they all believed Jesus was alive and they went rejoicing to their death because of that belief. Many people die for what they believe is true; nobody dies for what they know is a lie.

 

Easter is glorious because Jesus was delivered. He wasn't delivered from the cross for our good, but he was delivered from death. God delivered him from death in order that Jesus would be known as the Son of God who has taken away the sins of the world. The result is that we who believe in this Resurrected Jesus have life, even after death. To that hope we cast our eyes and set our hearts. We sing with the ancients, "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?"