I’ve been thinking about Easter a lot today. When I posted on Saturday about it feeling very un-Easter-like, I thought it was just me. Yet it seems to be a general theme among a lot of my friends and fellow bloggers. Many people feel like the season just kinda crept up on us and all of a sudden it was here and we weren’t acting or thinking any differently, even though this is the defining day for us.
I’ve got this friend who reminds me a lot of Jesus. Neither of us are your stereotypical girl, yet we still will call each other up and talk for hours on the phone. She’s got this beautiful, tender heart that lets me talk around the subject for as long as I need, then gently but firmly asks me the questions I’ve been avoiding.
I can’t help thinking that’s a lot like what Jesus does. He’s gentle and he wont force himself on you, but if you let him, he’ll ask the hard questions.
Today I feel like Jesus has been doing that to me. Easter came early, and the disruption was just that: a disruption. It’s almost as if Jesus has been saying, “You’re too comfortable Emma.” Have we put Easter in a box? Have we forgotten what this story really means? At church yesterday we sang Jesus Loves Me, an old kids praise song. It’s simple truth knocked me for six. “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” For me at least, I have become so familiar with many of the songs and many of the stories of Jesus life that I don’t really think about them much anymore. I mean, lets be honest…
Jesus rose from the dead!!
In case you didn’t notice… people don’t normally rise from the dead! It just doesn’t happen. But we (I) walk around as if this is completely normal, nothing our of the ordinary, doesn’t surprise us at all.
Maybe as our patterns and rhythms of living are disrupted, maybe that’s exactly what God wanted this easter. Maybe it was less about our not engaging with it and more about God calling out to us. Calling us from death into life.
And you see, that’s the beauty of the cross. It isn’t just Jesus’ resurrection. It’s my resurrection too. It’s all the ways in which Jesus makes me alive again where once I was dead. It’s life in all it’s fullness.
thanks emma, good thoughts
Thanks Emma, really inspiring thoughts. Easter sort of came and went for me this year; I have indeed become too comfortable not only with the horror of the cross, but also with the incredible reality of the resurrection, the astounding grace that frees me and the uncomfortable challenge to live like all these things are true.
if i can chime in a little late….I have felt this way all season, and its still of bothering me that i didn’t engage with the season of lent or easter. the most easter-like thing i did consisted of getting brunch with daley at a busy diner that was still fully decorated for st patricks day. one topic of conversation was how neither of us remember the last time we went to church. although, i think that meal was a bit of church. every time one of the restaurant staff said “happy easter” it felt foreign. its been an odd season.
its still weird…like i should be able to somehow transport myself into this sentimental easter mindset, but its just not happening.
sorry, i should not be allowed to type a comment this long. its kind of not a comment anymore, and more like i’m just blogging on your page. 🙂
@ julie: blog away 🙂 I made it to church on easter Sunday, in large part very excited because i’d been away for a month and i really missed it – those guys are my family. but aside from that, i had an easter lamb for lunch on monday, thats all I really did. it’s been a strange season for sure. because i spent most of lent in the US, i also got bombarded with the st patricks day stuff (strange for an irish girl – americans celebrate it so much more than we do!) now this comment is very long also, and i’ve kinda forgotten where it was going… i dont think it’s about transporting ourselves into some ‘sentimental easter mindset’, but about putting ourselves before the cross, just as we are… for me, this year that meant saying ‘I don’t feel this God… help me.’
@ coralie: “the uncomfortable challenge to live like all these things are true..” thanks for that line!
@ ally: i enjoyed your thoughts on it too bro, thanks.