Why Easter Matters

I suppose it’s only natural to think of Easter as a miracle; after all Christ’s rising from the dead is clearly within God’s realm. (John 20:1-9). But calling Easter a miracle excuses us from having anything further to do with it, since a miracle is God’s doing. We believe that God’s incarnation in Jesus and Jesus’ death and resurrection were for our salvation and benefit, not God’s, making Easter more a sacrament than a miracle. A sacrament, requires our participation for its existence. God performs miracles but men celebrate sacraments. God may work a miracle apart from men. However, man is essential to the presence of a sacrament.  

If Easter is to be a sacramental event, we must represent it for our fellow men, with our flesh and blood. Easter is sacramental every time one of us makes his life a source of light for another. Easter is sacramental when our words heal, when our hearts understand, when lesser values die in us for the sake of greater realities.

We are sacramental with Easter when men know us to be faithful. We are sacramental with Easter when our fellow men see us suffer not for selfish advantage but for their redemption. Easter is never more sacramental than when one man gives his life on behalf of another. Christians seek to make Easter sacramental in their lives by their memory of Jesus through their words and deeds.

John Calvin wrote that becoming Son of man with us, he made us sons of God with him; that by his descent to earth, he has prepared an ascent to heaven for us; that by taking on out mortality, he has conferred his immortality upon us; that accepting our weakness, he has strengthened us by his power; that receiving our poverty unto himself, he has transferred our wealth to us; that taking the weight of our iniquity upon himself (which oppressed us), he has clothed us with his righteousness. (Kruger, The Shack Revisited, p. 197)

Jesus became incarnate to not only teach us how to live our lives but to reside in Him through Jesus and lift us up into a life of communion, of participation in the very triune life of God. When we say “in him through him and with him” as we celebrate the Eucharist, we are reminded of our participation in his birth, death and resurrection. (Adapted from Dawn without Darkness, Anthony Padovano, p78)

 

The Spirit is Willing but the Flesh is Weak

He Suffered Under Pontius Pilate…

Daily experience shows us how difficult it is to stand up for those spiritual values to which we are committed even when we are at our best. Whenever we have to swim against the current or buck the trend we can relate to why Jesus suffered under Pontius Pilate. St Paul reminds us that “Indeed, all who wish to live God-centered lives in Jesus Christ will suffer persecution.” (2 Titus 3:12)

Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, among others were punished and in some cases killed for standing up for their values.

For us no less than Jesus, history is the stage on which our spiritual convictions are put to the test. Jesus was executed by a domination system that is as powerful today as it was then. How do we in our everyday lives follow Jesus as we too stand up for our spiritual values and in our own way “suffer under Pontius Pilate?”

He Was Crucified…

 Jesus’ crucifixion is a matter of historical fact. He like so many “prophets” who represented threats as subversive to Jewish law and Roman authority, were subjected to murder by crucifixion.  Crucifixion was the corporal punishment of choice for political radicals, designed to kill the convicted and to send a powerful message to any followers, that his “reign” was ended. 

What then might be the spiritual implication of Jesus’ crucifixion for us? Perhaps this question is best found in our Creed, which professes that our faith in the incarnate, Jesus Christ, is one and the same with God. Our belief in Jesus who, in his humanity fully shared in God’s divine spirit, united us in Him through Him with Him.  Thus when we profess that God’s tangible presence in the world was crucified, we express our faith that we can encounter God in the most horrible circumstances. In the midst of crucifixion—a scene that seems to scream out God’s absence…God is present. There is never anything so terrible in life or death that prevents us from enduring it with the trust in God’s presence. There is no injustice, no pain, no catastrophe that prevents us from God’s enduring love. This has given to countless men and women of faith a sense of peace and comfort in the midst of their darkest hours. (Mark 14:1-15:47) (Adapted from Deeper than Words, Living the Apostles Creed, David Stendl-Rast).

The Hour Has Come for the Son of Man to Be Glorified

 

The good news in John 12:20-33 is that we are left with Jesus’ capacity to transform the world through us. The tiny grain of wheat falls to the earth, dies, is reborn and eventually bears much fruit. Through us, His Word is brought fully into the world, even by just one individual who touches those around him. They will be transformed, and the stories they in turn will tell, will transform others, continuing to work miracles in the lives of any who aspire to be Christ-centered for generations to come 

We are all connected in ways that we don't fully understand but in a world in which there are no coincidences, His Blessings are meted out in just the right dose and time. I know we are "lucky" to know this, and that luck has nothing to do with it? Yet, in giving myself permission to indulge in this "special knowledge," I pray that I am not giving myself too much credit and wallowing in self-gratification? Jesus is my personal mentor and my personal way to the Father. How dare I take so much of His Time? I want to believe that the more He gives, the more He wants me to take. To understand this in the context of our human nature and "good manners" and not feel "greedy" are not easy to reconcile.  
 

God does not want to be a part of, or at the periphery of our being; He wants to be centered in us as our sustenance. And if He is centered in us and we in Him, than we are inter-connected as one with the universe. Our interconnectedness as part of the Body of Christ in which we exist "with Him, in Him and through Him," comes alive in John's gospel, in which Jesus tells us that "I am the Bread of Life"...without which we will die.. 

Jesus went beyond superficial divisions and called for a culture of compassion…Compassion changes everything. Compassion heals. Compassion mends the broken and restores what has been lost. Compassion draws together those who have been estranged or never dreamed they were connected. Compassion pulls us out of ourselves and into the heart of another, placing us on holy ground where we instinctively take off our shoes and walk in reverence. Compassion springs out of vulnerability and triumphs in unity. . (Judy Cannato, Field of Compassion, P 8)

 

For God So Loved The World That He Gave His Only Son,

Considerable conflict existed among the “Jewish Christians” at the time of John’s writing this gospel (John 3: 14-21). Those Jews who as followers of Christ, were very likely dealing with the pain of having been thrown out of their synagogues and cut off from their families and friends. The very foundation and center of their lives were gone. When we experience that kind of painful rejection, it’s easy to fall into a way of thinking that is negative and size up everyone in terms of whether they’re for us or against us. John’s teachings helped them to reinforce a new sense of identity, they were still banished from the elements of society that was “home.” We can fast forward to our day and time, and relate to the unstable feelings brought about by loss of identity and exclusion.

But that should not obscure the gems of truth found in this text. It clearly affirms Gods’ unconditional love for the whole world. It also tells us something about the kind of response that love calls forth in us. In John’s Gospel, it’s called “doing the truth.” Our faith, our truth, our convictions are meant to be put into practice in our lives. But this is not something we learn to do like riding a bike…once you learn it you’ve got it. It’s more like learning a musical instrument. The skill must be constantly honed or it atrophies. You just don’t sit back at the piano and play as you did years ago, just because you did before. Like the piano, if you’re really committed to it, you’re always learning how to play better.

 I’ve been practicing my religion almost as long as I’ve practiced the piano. But practicing my faith as it is proscribed by Jesus, is relatively new. My piano is coming back slowly but not without effort. As for my faith, I’m still continually learning what it means to love God and love others. I’m still learning how to get beyond my own selfishness so that I can truly love the people around me. I still learning how to open myself so that the life and love of God can flow through me. I’m still learning to relate to the people around me with compassion, understanding, kindness, and mercy. And I hope that I never stop practicing.