Easter is such a relaxing time of the year. Having a four day weekend feels like such a luxury. So much space and time to do something special. Christmas is all busyness and rush and parties. Easter for us is more spacious and reflective. Daylight saving ends, nights are cool. It’s almost like the last farewell to sunshine before winter sets in. Unlike Christmas, with all its jolliness and festivity, Easter is also a time for everyone, no matter where you’re at. A time for joy, but also a time for quiet. Christians love to jump to Sunday, and for good reason, but if we skip the importance of the Friday and Saturday of Easter, I think we miss the most inclusive and welcoming day of the year, because if you are in pain, fear or mourning, the Easter story tells us that God knows exactly what it’s like. God experienced it all through Jesus.
In the Christian tradition, the week leading up to Easter is excitement, anticipation, but also a little bit of dread – When we read the story of this week in the Bible, we’re put in the disciples’ shoes (or is it sandals?). They’re not quite sure what to expect. On the one hand, Jesus must be the one we’ve been waiting for, to overthrow the Roman rulers and free the nation, a conquering king. But on the other hand, Jesus comes into the capital city on a donkey, not a warrior’s stallion. They eat a ritual meal, the Last Supper, as fugitives, tucked away in a safe house, hiding from the authorities. When challenged and arrested, Jesus doesn’t fight back, he just gives himself up.
Jesus is led away, tortured, beaten and suffers through a kangaroo court in the early hours of the morning. Jesus’ followers run away and deny him. But Jesus – God – doesn’t resist. In Jesus, God has put himself in the place of the abused, the suffering, the oppressed. God takes it so that we, in our suffering, our fear and oppression, when we cry out ‘Where is God in this!’ we can know - that’s where God is, on the cross. Jesus suffered, he was tortured and killed. Humanity did that to God. The spirit of death and destruction at work in the world through humans is what killed Jesus. Don’t you think that everywhere in the world, if we have eyes to see, we can see that truth – people kill God. When we hate, are unforgiving, we kill the spirit of Life in the world. Some people call that sin. And it sometimes appears, like it did to those disciples, that God doesn’t fight back.
Jesus’ followers were as bemused as we are. Why doesn’t Jesus fight back? Perhaps we backed the wrong man? Maybe we also have stood there with the disciples, feeling betrayed, thinking ‘perhaps I backed the wrong God.’ They sit, scared that they’ll be killed next. The Bible tells us that the male disciples fled, they didn’t want to get caught. Only the women who followed Jesus remained. Standing by him until the end. Because they did, they were the witnesses to the miracle:
God doesn’t stay dead.
The resurrection of Jesus shows us how God conquers. Jesus beat the thing that holds us back. The deepest and darkest fear we have, of death, of separation from the good, true and beautiful in the world. Jesus went there, alone, and he came back. He defeated death. Not only that, but then he invited others to join him to live true life, without fear of separation from Life. Jesus didn’t only invite to ‘good’ people, he went back to his fearful followers, his betrayers, weak and unfaithful, and he welcomed them into this new life. A life eternally connected to Life. Jesus has risen, God is alive, at work here and now. We don’t need to wait until we die. Life is here. But Easter is a gift to all of us. If you’re wondering where God could possibly be in the mess and mourning of your life, he’s there. He’s shown us that by the way he gave himself up to death on a cross. And we have confidence, trust that he has already beaten it, and he stands with us, wherever we are.
Dean McDonald