on easter

“Have fun tonight!”, my fellow Pilgrim said to me while I was on my way out the door. “Well, it probably won’t be fun, but thanks”, I reply.

This was Friday night, Good Friday. It’s funny how a two line conversation is enough to get me thinking…A Good Friday service is never good. It’s contemplative. It’s sombre. It’s sometimes even harrowing. We sing songs that focus around the crucifixion, carefully removing the verses that speak of the resurrection. One year we showed The Passion of The Christ accompanied by live music. And promptly bawled our eyes out. Why do we put ourselves through this when we know how it ends? We know there is hope, and yet we choose to gather to remember the suffering and pain of our hope.

It’s kind of like watching Schindler’s List. It’s an extraordinary movie. It teaches us so much about human suffering, about holding on to hope and good triumphing over evil. It tells us that one small act of kindness, a little bit of goodness, can go incredibly far. Do I enjoy watching it? No. Does knowing how it all ends make it any less distressing? Not at all. Do I cry EVERY FLIPPING TIME I WATCH IT? Yes. Can watching it, despite all of this, change my heart? Absolutely. It gives us perspective. It makes my struggles, my pain, so much more bearable. Seeing the strength of humankind, seeing the resolve with which those heroes worked against such horrendous atrocities causes me to resolve to love more fiercely, speak up more steadfastly and bear my heart openly to anyone who wants to know it.

This is a scary post to write.

I’m usually a chicken when it comes to this sort of thing.

I know a good portion of my regular readers might disagree with my beliefs. And I’m ok with that. I expect my friends to challenge me with their opinions, that’s how we become decent people. But this is important to me, and I want you to know. I hope I’m not being preachy.

Our Easter traditions have always involved a lot of church. My dad just missed out on a trip to China (mum went without him!) because it was Holy Week. But Easter also involves fish and chips on Good Friday, Hot Cross Buns and chocolate eggs for breakfast.

Then there was the Easter that we joined our good friends at their (fairly high) Anglican church for an Easter Saturday service…At sundown, the presiding minister said “Hallelujah! Christ is Risen!” We then attended our own church’s Easter Sunday service at sunrise. And when the sun came up, we said “Hallelujah! Christ is Risen!” We got to celebrate it twice that year – pretty special!

I can’t help but wonder what the disciples were thinking when Jesus died. It must have been soul destroying. But then to find him resurrected….wow. Anyway, I suppose the point is, that we have an incredible hope. There’s always hope, even when all hope seems lost.

I will not boast in anything, No gifts, no power, no wisdom;   But I will boast in Jesus Christ, His death and resurrection.

Stuart Townend

For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

Romans 8:24-25