Dear Friends
In a few weeks we will celebrate Easter. School children and I suspect some teachers are already counting down the weeks until the School Holidays. The presence of Hot Cross Buns in the shops since Boxing Day, the Chocolate Easter Eggs outnumbering the chicken eggs, are signs that Easter is on the way.
Easter means many things to different people. For some it is simply a holiday, a break from the routine of our regular lives. For others it makes little impact on the daily routines. As a farmer once told me, dairy cows haven’t quite worked out the idea of holidays and weekends.
For a few, Easter is a solemn celebration. It is an odd turn of phrase. Solemnity and celebration almost seem opposed to each other. Celebration suggests the ideas of joy, happiness and revelry. Solemnity is more suggestive of sadness and introspection.
Easter encapsulates the twin ideas of joy and sadness. Good Friday, despite its name, is a day of sadness. A day of remembering Jesus dying. Suffering on a cross, deserted by his companions, betrayed by a friend, tried unjustly, executed in the most humiliating and painful way known.
Jesus suffering on the cross wasn’t simply physical suffering. There was the spiritual anguish as he experienced the wrath of his heavenly Father poured out against the sin of humanity. The cry of Jesus, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me” echoes throughout eternity as Jesus pays the price for our rejection of God.
But the sadness and solemnity of Good Friday gives way to the joy and celebration of Easter Day. The dawning of the first Easter morning brought news of the empty tomb. The sadness surrounding the death of Jesus was about to be overtaken by the news of the resurrection. Jesus had gone from being the defeated victim of an unjust government to the one who triumphed over sin and death.
This Easter many of us will enjoy time off; spare a thought for those who do not enjoy such a break. We may spend time with family and friends or enjoy the quiet solitude of our own company. Some will eat too many Hot Cross Buns and overindulge in chocolate in all its forms and in a variety of shapes.
However you enjoy your Easter break, can I encourage you to take a moment to consider the events that surround the first Easter. Reflect on why it is that Easter is a solemn celebration.
Yours in Christ
Andrew
