By Dr. Joe Yelton
Interim Pastor
I suspect that most of us live cautiously with an uncomfortable truth…Easter is simply not as much fun as Christmas. For the four or five weeks preceding Christmas, we party, carol, purchase, decorate and generally, act nicer than usual. Easter…well, we show up Easter morning to sanctuaries a bit fuller than usual but beyond that, not much. Why is that? Most believers would agree that the climactic event in human history was, is, and forever will be the resurrection of our Lord, the Christ. Why then does Easter, for many of us, get second billing to Christmas?
The quick answer may be: we love births, whether Bethlehem births or Sylva births. Deaths, particularly bloody, painful deaths, even deaths followed by resurrection, are hard to party, carol, purchase, decorate and act nicer around.
Maybe, just maybe, we are missing an essential point: Jesus coming to us in the form of Bethlehem’s baby was as much an act of contrition by God (leaving heaven’s glory for humanity’s indignity) as was Jesus dragging His broken body to the top of Golgotha’s pinnacle to be crucified.
I will always feel giddier about births than deaths, even deaths followed by resurrection. But what I FEEL isn’t the point. What I know, what I have experienced, what has transitioned me from what I was into a “new creation” is the point.
“What can wash away my sin, nothing but the blood of Jesus.” Maybe I’ll see you tomorrow night, Maundy Thursday, as we prepare to join with Jesus in retelling the story of that first Holy Communion. Then, walk slowly on Good Friday, remembering that as Jesus looked down from the cross, He saw your face and mine. Then gather this Sunday, as we declare to any willing to hear, “He is risen, He is risen indeed.” It the greatest truth…ever!