Years ago, when I was her minister, the mother of a four‑year‑old confronted me with a profound question. While she and her son were dragging out the plastic eggs and stuffed bunnies in preparation for the upcoming Easter festivities, she realized that somehow this was a cultural trick and treat game for the spring. You sort of trick the kids into believing in miracles [rabbits laying eggs] and treat them with candy and new clothes. She suddenly felt a compulsion to teach her son about the true meaning of Easter. But she was stumped. How do you explain the enigma of Easter to your child, when you really don’t understand it yourself? Check with your minister, of course!
I disappointed her with a dumbfounded look. If I had THE answer to that one, I’d be selling books or preaching on television. I hate to say “I don’t know”. I feel like I should invent something to prevent myself from coming over like a stick in the mud. But that’s what I am: stuck in the same mud of obscurity as you when it comes to the mysteries of our faith. Especially when it comes to that greatest of all murder mysteries with the disappearing corpse. Easter is the darndest thing to figure, much less explain to a four‑year‑old. It scares us out of our wits like that angel in the graveyard asking those faithful women that first Easter sunrise, “Why are you looking for the living among the dead?”
Why do we have to understand everything? Or explain everything to our children to wipe away some of their wonder? Our reason for trying to understand the death and resurrection of Jesus is to gain some sense of control of the situation. To figure it out, or to use a word that’s quite in vogue in church circles, to “discern” the real meaning of Easter for our own security in life. We sink or swim by such self‑sufficiency. When Archimedes jumped in the bath tub and displaced water, he figured out how specific gravity made certain things float and others sink. “Eureka, I have it!” became the cry heard round the world.
Resurrection is beyond explanation and defies human logic. It simply flies in the face of all reality. But so does God’s grace. And love. Try telling your child the real meaning of love. Or try explaining birth or death. But, there’s a catch, you see, which you really don’t see. Can’t see. When you come to the end of this blind alley, you discover it’s a dead end, which is what life becomes without Easter.
I find it well nigh to impossible to believe in Easter because it is such a scandal. Ridiculous. Incredible. There’s no way on earth to explain someone rising from the dead — neither the whys nor the wherefores. Like the undeserved grace of God ‑‑ it simply happens, and we are struck deaf and dumb by all its intensity and insanity. We don’t understand it. We can’t control it. We don’t deserve it. But it is freely given. When Christ left that tomb, something beyond reason came chasing us. Death defying love that now defines our living and throws light against all the shadows of our doubts. Eureka!
Thank you for sharing Dudley. It was a good message, for this Easter morning. I enjoy and find comfort with your insight.
Have Faith.