2 posts tagged “easter”

Good Friday marks the day when Jesus Christ was crucified, and is sometimes called Black Friday. It is the central event of the Christian faith - the one event that Jesus himself asked his followers to remember over all others. It is the day he lost his dignity, his friends, and his life; and the day he was forsaken by the One who mattered most to him - God the Father. I don't believe we can ever fully understand the depths of his suffering - how black that day was for him. Yet he went through it all for us, we are told.

Years later, we carry our own crosses and go through our own forms of suffering. However, we can do so with a measure of hope. We have a God who did not exempt himself from the darkness of death but suffered and bled as well - for our sakes. But more than that, he overcame death, and offers us a new life with Him - like a fountain of "living water" he says, that quenches our deepest thirst, and is so fathomless that we shall spend eternity drinking from it.

"What's lost is nothing to what's found, and all the death that ever was, set next to life, would scarcely fill a cup."

- Frederick Buechner

It was the end of the day and people were winding down from another week at the office. "Good night" says someone. "Have a good weekend" says my secretary. And as another door shuts in the hallway, I hear "Happy Easter Ted!"

"Happy Easter" - I wonder what most people understand that to mean. Hip Hop? Do pictures of fluffy bunny rabbits come to mind? I guess for many people that sounds like a happy excuse to indulge in some chocolate eggs.

Easter is the most significant holiday of the Christian faith, yet I doubt many people outside of the faith know that to be the case. Good Friday and Easter - the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  More than any other aspect of his life, Jesus told us to remember his death and resurrection. It was not a reenactment of his birth, his teachings, his miracles nor any of the dramatic events of his ministry - but it was a reenactment of his death that Jesus asked us to remember.

"The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me." In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me." For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes." [1 Cor 11:24-26]

"Remember me", Jesus says. For when we remember him, it means that we have carried something of who he is with us, that we have allowed him to leave some mark of who he is on who we are. It means that in remembering his death, a part of us also dies with him.

The apostle Paul says "your life is hid with Christ in God". That we are "in him", in his death and resurrection. And because he is risen, we are given new life.  The story does not remain a dark one.  It is because of the darkness that the light is that much brighter.  The darkness of his death reveals the glory and power of his love. Christ is risen. Like "light coming out of darkness, like the sun rising out of the sea. Stillness and unspeakable relief following in the wake of a storm. It is hope rising out of shuddering despair. It is life springing like a lily, like a rose out of death."