As I was growing up, Easter was fun but not especially significant. There was the Good: Easter baskets filled with toys and candy, not to mention the amazing food we would always have. There was the Bad: Having to dress up in a suit and tie and give the house a thorough cleaning for guests. There was the Quirky: Easter egg hunts in our bedroom with blindfolds on because it was too cold and snowy to attempt anything of the sort outside. I hear that is different in other places.
Easter was fun, but it paled in comparison to Christmas or Thanksgiving. I would say that it is the one holiday that has actually become more fun and more significant to me as I have matured. I believe there is a simple reason for this: my problems are bigger now than they were when I was younger. Instead of being concerned about my grades or swimming times or action figure collection, I am thinking about my mortgage and running my organization and raising my kids. The stakes keep getting bigger and bigger. To add to that, I am coming face to face with real, systemic problems that are destroying the world around us. 8-year-old-me did not spend much time thinking about racism or income disparity or the church's response to same-sex marriage or the effects of globalized capitalism. Small problems that we deal with daily at Joel's Place are linked into large, systemic problems which are linked into other large, systemic problems. I see the effects on our kids and I get angry and I get sad and I get frustrated and I grow apathetic. And then along comes Easter.
Easter proclaims that all of this...all of the troubles, all of the strife, all of the pain, all of the sorrow...all of the weight that we carry as men and women of this earth...all of this will pass away. It will be replaced by a new reality that is free of tears, free of pain, free of hatred and cruelty and injustice. It will be replaced by a new reality that is so remarkable that our present existence is merely a small taste, a glimpse, a foreshadowing of its wonder. It will be replaced because Jesus confronted the worst that the darkness could offer: humiliation, abandonment, suffering, death and separation from God...everything that we fear the most. How much pain in the world is caused by people using their resources to avoid those things? Jesus did not avoid them; he intentionally stepped into their path. The power of the Enemy broke as Jesus rampaged through Hell. The myth that Darkness and Light are two equal powers battling for supremacy was busted as Death, the only certainty in life, was overcome. Jesus emerged from the tomb as more than a good teacher or a holy prophet...he emerged as the GOD of reality, the sustainer of all life, the champion of all who place their trust in Him.
What that means for us is this: There is freedom. Freedom from worry. Freedom from doubt. Freedom from hating ourselves and despising others. Freedom to love. Freedom to give generously. Freedom to take extravagant risks. Everything that holds us down and beats us up? Everything that drives us into despair and isolation? Broken pieces of rubble that we need only let go of to be free.
I imagine Jesus emerging from the tomb with a laugh that echoed for miles. Easter is the time for laughter and joy. It is the time to embrace a new reality: We will be free from the problems of the world. They will pass away. We can be free from the problems of our soul. Jesus has broken their power.
Tomorrow is Easter. Let us not be absorbed in worry about the eggs and the baskets and the suits and the dinners. Instead let us laugh and love and remind each other of the extravagant, outrageous love that our Father has for us.
Amen.
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