Celebrated, betrayed and condemned…
There are times when, in our haste to indulge in the buttons, balls, and bunnies—plain, dark, or milk… bows or bonnets, hot cross buns… daffodils on crosses, sunrise services, the price paid, and death conquered—we unceremoniously rush past the very route that gets us there: the journey to the cross itself.
Reflections on Easter take on fresh significance when considered in light of the times we live in. This era beckons us to live in Easter, and to let Easter live in us in a whole new way. As Gerard Manley Hopkins put it, we must let Christ “Easter in us.”
This can only happen when we shift our gaze away from the noun of Easter—the historic event that took place over 2,000 years ago—and toward the verb of Easter: the daily call to be transformed and transforming.
This emphasis dares us to risk the same road that Jesus walked—and to walk the same road that Jesus risked. It invites us to let every other claim to our allegiance—be it a leader (church or otherwise), a nation, city, denomination, race, or even family and friends—fall in line behind the one claim that takes priority over them all.
Will we be celebrated if we do so? Possibly. But probably, like Jesus, for all of five minutes. (Spoiler alert: celebrity, and the need to be needed, are poor substitutes for true faith).
Jesus was clear: choosing him means choosing death. Reward comes through sacrifice. Dying is the only way we truly win, and victory is somehow found in defeat.
It’s when we’re courageous enough to step up, stand out, and speak up that the impossible becomes possible—not because it’s easy, but because God’s Spirit of power is at work within us.
Thankfully (back to the buttons, balls, and bunnies!), the story of the cross isn’t all betrayal and condemnation. And if you’ve been feeling as if it is—as we sometimes do—you’ll be glad to know, the story doesn’t end there!
In this story—as in ours, if we choose—resurrection is always inevitable.
Because, quite simply, it’s impossible to keep good people—or indeed, the God-Man—down.
Happy Easter!
