Easy Sunday: Easter
"What's it all about, Alfie?
Is it just for the moment we live? . . .
Alfie, I know there's something much more,
Something even non-believers can believe in."
Bert Bacharach and Hal David, "Alfie" 1966
“My Kingdom is not an earthly kingdom. If it were, my followers would fight to keep me from being handed over to the Jewish leaders. But my Kingdom is not of this world.”
John 18:36, circa 100 CE
Guest Post by John Coster
The annual celebration of Easter has been the single most important event for all Christians around the world for nearly 2,000 years. Good Friday marks the death of Jesus, showing him to be 100% human; and Easter marks his resurrection from the dead, showing him to be 100% God. It is the definition of a paradox. The Apostle Paul wrote that if Jesus had not been raised from the dead, then Christians’ faith is in vain, and they should be pitied. The whole of Christian faith, the grand hope for humanity, rests in this single sacred truth.
The recent post about Trump hawking the “God Bless the USA Bible” reminded me that hucksters have profaned the sacred for their enrichment for as long as there have been hucksters. The only record we have of Jesus getting seriously angry was when he drove out the merchants and moneychangers from the Temple because they were profiting from selling animals for people to offer as sacrifices as part of Passover. So, you don’t have to wonder what Jesus would think of this kind of profiteering.
That this “Bible” also includes the U.S. flag, Constitution, Declaration of Independence, and Pledge of Allegiance, et al., making it the perfect icon for Christian nationalism, which is the false notion that Christianity was meant to be a political movement. It is the same mistake Jesus’ followers made when they thought that he came to restore the Jewish monarchy and kick out the Romans.The story of Easter is that Jesus came not just to teach a set of principles for human flourishing. He came to restore the broken relationship between God and us, for now, and eternity. Political systems (and kingdoms) come and go, and graveyards are filled with formerly-powerful leaders who offered false hope of a better life. Many who do not have a better anchor than politics find themselves angry, anxious, and fearful these days.
I am as troubled as anyone about the current political and ecological state of the world -- one that is also filled with enormous human suffering. While I vote, donate, have been a party delegate, and even marched in some causes I believe in, my North Star of hope rests in the eternal Kingdom of Heaven that Jesus offers. It is remarkably liberating and is freely available to anyone who seeks Him.