Easter Thoughts

I had the privelege of spending easter in Florida with family. We went to a sunrise service on the beach, and it is a beautiful setting for a church service--if you can stay awake.

This particular sunrise service has a wide appeal, so literally thousands of people show up, and I can't help but feel like the service ends up being a little watered down because of the desire to appeal to "seekers". I think pastors feel pressure on holidays like Easter when they think that some people are only in church because it is Easter and as a result they have to take the opportunity to reach those people with the message of salvation. Many times this attempt is made in vain, leaving people scratching their heads as to what they did wrong, or how else they should try to reach out to those they deem not yet saved.

It also seems like pastors feel the pressure to constantly re-invent the salvation story in order to remain relevant. But this attempt to stay relevant is futile. The gospel story is by very nature relevant, because when portrayed accurately it speaks to the heart of the human condition. If people actually thought "what would jesus do?" before they acted, can you imagine how relevant the gospel would be? If believers actually sought to live lives inspired by the Grace God has freely given by seeking to love our neighbors as ourselves, by seeking to act as salt in the wounds of our world, by seeking peace--how relevant would that message be?

When I read the Easter story, I can't help but be amazed by the work Christ did on the cross. What is often left out of the Easter story is that even those who were directly responsible for the death of Christ were not excluded from the grace he offers. Can you imagine being put to death in order to save the people who were responsible for injustly killing you? What kind of ridiculous love is that? I think it frames nicely the message of the Easter story. We often identify the most with the followers of Jesus when we read the crucifixion story, because we are so good at persuading ourselves that we are actually better than we are, . We think of the Pharisees as those other people who are not followers of Christ. But that's a misreading of the message at the heart of the story. We're all much closer to being Pharisees than disciples.

Someone I know put it nicely once. He was talking about "The Passion of the Christ," and the charges of anti-semitism that were brought against Mel Gibson. He said that Mel Gibson was asked during an interview, "Who really killed Jesus?" to which he responded "We all did." This seems like a satisfactory answer, but it's only half true. My friens said "It's not only that we all did kill Jesus; it's that we all would."

We all would like to kill someone who comes to challenge the very nature of what it means to be human, who rejects the confines of this world to offer us something immeasurably better, who claims to know the true meaning of scripture when that meaning is contradictory to our interpretation, and who spends his time with those who warrant no esteem from the respected institutions of society. That man would not be taken seriously by those whom we have deemed the religious authority, and would challenge the very nature of their belief.

One final quote that I hope wraps up all this rambling. In the Chronicles of Narnia, Lucy asks "Is he (Asland) safe?" The response she receives is, "Well, he's not safe--but he is good."

He's not safe-- but he's good.