As a school chaplain I find myself cringing slightly as the assemblies come along. I’m there thinking empty tomb and risen Christ and everyone else is thinking Easter bunny and chocolate.
There is no doubt that Easter begins after Christmas (in the supermarket aisles at least) but we can divorce the two festivals in our minds quite easily. Christmas with its nice neat and tidy manger scene (which it wasn’t, tidy and neat I mean), Easter with its violence and death (which it certainly was). The two are sides of the same coin, one man’s life.
The Mel Gibson Passion overstated the violence and cruelty of crucifixion, or did it ? Lots of complaints were made about the sheer nastiness of the violence, but crucifixion is not a nice thing. And the sad part is that had we been there we would have watched with the rest of the crowd. We would have been in there shouting for thedestruction of this individual not because we particularly wanted it, but we’d be fearful of the powers that be.
Easter, for the church, has nothing to do with bunnies. It is to do with new life, and hence the confusion in the popular mindset.
Most churches will mark this week as being holy and will have services throughout the seven days to follow the events in Jerusalem all those years ago.
May those who have faith, and those who have none, take a risk to make that journey to ask why such an event should have such an impact on history.
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