Easter, that gloriously wonderful time to celebrate that Jesus Christ defeated death, and rose from the dead after crucifixion, is here once again and what a challengingly fantastic time it is. We know that Jesus Christ, born at Christmastime, did grow up, perform miracles, train followers, was crucified, died, buried and that He rose from the dead. For those who are stuck at the Christmas happening with all the appeal of an infant Christ in a glitzy manger, the Easter event is a bit of a stretch—and yet it is an important reveal for all of us. For if we have the faith and the mind set of Jesus Christ as a helpless and somewhat romantic infant, then the Easter event will seem very gruesome in that it involves death, resurrection, and where we will spend eternity.
If we have what I call a Christmas faith, then when heart aches, sorrows, death comes along we will throw up our hands in despair. However with an Easter faith we are equipped for all that life sends our way—joys, sorrows, defeats, death, and heartaches. So the Easter event, in a nutshell, is that Jesus Christ, that little baby that we celebrated at Christmas, grew up and He asks us to grow up in our faith, our thinking and our living. Jesus Christ grew up and inspired by His heavenly Father, performed miracles, offered new life and in so doing threatened the authorities that put Him to death. He rose from the dead, appeared to His followers, all of whom were frightened for their future, and He gave His Holy Spirit or presence to us and to the world and He lives with us today. I consider it a sacred privilege to share some thoughts via this paper, however will admit that the Easter event is hard to capture in words, images, discussions and that it is more of an ongoing experience for all of us.
For instance when I was young, my Mom refused to allow Easter candy like eggs and bunnies into the house, fearing that the religious significance of Easter would thus be ruined. We used to cry and beg for Easter toys and candies like most of our friends received, but she refused and I admire her stamina in doing so. It couldn’t have been easy back in the 1950s to stand your ground on the religious significance of Easter, yet she did, and I am eternally grateful. Over time, and as I consider Easter to be an ongoing happening in that the Spirit, presence, ideas and ideals of Jesus Christ keep inspiring, motivating and leading forward, I would say that the message of Easter is much more than some mere candies, and that it is a message of hope—hope that in life, in death and in life after death we are assured of the accompaniment of a living Saviour who is in the world today, who walks with us, talks with us, changes and challenges us. Jesus Christ challenges us in the same way He challenged those first followers who found the tomb empty and who tried to make sense of the resurrection appearances of Christ as He revealed Himself in a garden, on a deserted road and to some followers on a beach. He challenges us in that we can never really pin him down, never really fully comprehend His message and never fully understand, even though we try. Yet Christ makes a difference in our lives. When Mary Magdalene sees the Risen Christ and realizes who He is, Christ says to her (and to us as well) “don’t hold on to me, I haven’t yet ascended to the Father.” We need to really listen up to those words. They are very significant. Christ says them to Mary Magdalene and also to us today, don’t hold on, don’t try to nail me down, don’t think you’ve ever got it all figured out, for there will always be the element of surprise, or there will always be some challenging documents or some way that life will challenge or change who you are. In the same uway that Mary Magdalene, after the Easter resurrection experience ventured forth in fear and in wonder, so too must we—and we can never pin down the power and the energy of Jesus Christ. We can never really nail Him down to a cross and that is what Easter is all about.
We might prefer to hide out and to eat a few Easter candies, but we are challenged to go with Jesus Christ in whatever direction He is leading. We live in the shadow of the cross and we are Easter people. The real message is that the followers didn’t run away, didn’t keep silence, they ran to the tomb and they embraced Jesus Christ and they told the good news, and that is our mandate—to serve a risen saviour, to tell, to believe to be open to the Risen Christ as He appears to us today in the words of scholars, in the answers to prayers, in nature and in our lives. The real message to us is that Christ has no hands now but ours, no body now but ours, no feet but ours and that the Risen Christ is with us to help us out each and every moment. So, as we serve a risen Saviour we respect the many challenges, many ways of serving, ways of thinking, and in so doing we honour God. May we, as Easter people, be inspired and challenged by the risen Christ and filled with resurrection inspiration. May we live life to the fullest with no fear of dying and no fear of eternity. May we know who we are and whose we are.
Rev. Jean Brown is a Haweater orginally from Mindemoya and is now serving the United Church of Canada churches of Selby and Empey Hill through pulpit supply in her retirement.
