The Trivialisation of Easter

 

The sanitisation of Easter is underway again. Bunny rabbits, eggs, chocolate, and daffodils are piled up in supermarkets, while store assistants dress up in Disney costumes (at least in our local Coop) and the lambs on UK hillsides shiver in the cold. And shiver they should, because the British tradition of roast lamb is probably closer to the symbolism of the original Easter story than you might think.

I was taking a look at that story this week and I noticed much more similarity between the news reports coming out of Ukraine and the first Easter, rather than any semblance of a link to the whitewashed, commercialised, trivialised and largely dismissive 'celebration' of the holiday where I live.

I saw Jesus - God's Son - lied about in court. That court was a stitch-up of people probably paid to testify against him, and he just remained silent in front of them, a picture of steady purpose and dignity. Then I watched him being tortured and abused by invading foreign soldiers. He was a civilian, not a combatant or a terrorist, but brutalised invaders don't care about that. Jesus was stripped in public, beaten, paraded by his executioners and finally nailed to a wooden cross, wearing a cruel crown of thorns. No bullet to the back of the head for him, his blood was mingled with sweat and gore as he hung on a gibbet meant for a criminal, for hours on end. There was no bunny rabbit at Calvary, no Disney character to swing down and save him. 

Perhaps the cruel images from Bocha and the station at Kramatorsk are more helpful in understanding the true nature of what was happening at Golgotha around 33 AD. Of course we have to find ways of interpreting that to children, - enter the rabbits etc - but we should not lose sight of what it cost Jesus to deal with our sin. 

'O make me understand it,

Help me to take it in,

What it meant to Thee, the Holy One,

To bear away my sin'. *

This was God's lamb put to death for the sins of the world. Here was a sign of God's presence amongst the bloodshed and horror perpetrated by sinful men and women driven by the lying spirit of Satan himself, such as we see laid out before us on our tv screens today. There is no sanitising sin. But if Easter means anything, it means that God knows what it's like to suffer injustice and rejection from people gripped by evil. And still he went on to the cross.

And on the third day he rose again! But that's for another time. And maybe the new life of the egg does have some symbolism? hmm Let's see.

* 'Give me a sight O Saviour' by Katherine Kelly © 1944 HarperCollins Religious       

As I prepare to leave for London again on Monday, the tenth such trip for medical help and hospital visits in the last 12 months, I can't help reflecting on the fact that it is the start of Holy Week. My particular battle is with physical pain so that for me, the cross of Calvary is very pertinent, and the sufferings of Jesus there for me seem stark and real like the sudden death of a close friend or loved one. It is amazing that my God should plan it that way so that the maker of the universe was made subject to the most appalling pain on my behalf. There was no accident about this.  Jesus did not stumble into taking my bullet - like the Indian clerk who takes the shot for the lead character in television's Indian Summers - no, he chose to go that way and experience that pain because he loves me and cares so deeply about my destiny.

For that reason alone my pain becomes more bearable.  But there is more. This Jesus did not stay dead. Against all scientific reason and historic precedence he rose again on the third day. Now by his death and bodily resurrection Jesus becomes the means of my own redemption from sin and death. My pain is temporary.  It may be extreme at times, and I long for it to be over, but even if I am not healed this side of eternity, and I pray ever day that I will be, I know where I am going when I do die. Not for me the 'hope so' uncertainties of balancing scales or trying to climb a crumbling pile of good works to see over my skip loads of mistakes and regrets, no!  Because he lives then we who trust him will also live!  His empty grave is our visa and his book of life our passport.

So in this momentous week for every Christian I set off to face the uncertainties of a delicate and dangerous surgical procedure knowing that all will be well. Easter changes everything. 'Calvary covers it all'.

For You!

One of the highlights of the last year for me was to visit Israel with our son Matthew.  It was great to spend time once again in the ancient and fascinating city of Jerusalem as well as Massada and Galilee.  Among our many stops in the city we visited 'Gordon's Calvary' or 'The Garden Tomb' where many believe the site of the crucifiction may have been.  Whether the theory is right or not, there are many signs of a first-century garden with its cisterns and a rock grave with evidence that it was a very early place of Christian devotion.

Just down below the rocky hill where it is believed that Golgotha - the place of a skull - may have been situated lies a busy bus station.  There the many nationalities that make up this cosmopolitan melting pot press to and fro in a noisy huddle, all the while in the shadow of the cross.  The very busyness of the place seems to mock the idea that the Saviour of the world died there.  Yet, the shadow of a cross over a bus station seems as right as a king born in a stable.  It was for busy people Jesus died, as well as lonely people and sad.  In fact it was for you - and me!

As I stood in the nearby 1st Century rock tomb I was struck by the inscription on the door. 'He is not here He is risen!'  We did not go there to venerate a site or to see relics of a dead teacher or prophet.  We went because when He died for us He also rose for us and is alive today in the lives of ordinary people - in stables and bus stations and offices and schools.  It was interesting to see where it might have all started, but it is really exciting this Easter to realise where it all ended up.  For us!