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Easter: Wallow in Dying, or Revel in Living
KALAMAZOO, MI (April 12, 2006) - Editor's note: In preparation for Easter,
Covenant Communications is sharing devotionals that originally appeared
in local Covenant church newsletters and are being published here by
permission. The following comes from pastor John Kepler of Kalamazoo
Covenant Church.
By John Kepler
For years, my daughter and several of my friends urged me to read John
Irving's novel, A Prayer for Owen Meany. Finally, I picked up a
copy, although I was intimidated by its size (some 500 pages, depending
upon the edition).
The opening paragraph grabbed me with these words, "I am a Christian
because of Owen Meany." I couldn't put the book down and have since read
it through twice and am getting ready for a third reading (caution – it
is "R" for language).
At one point in the story, Irving writes, "I find that Holy Week is
draining; no matter how many times I have lived through his crucifixion,
my anxiety about his resurrection is undiminished – I am terrified that
this year it won't happen; that, that year, it didn't. Anyone can be
sentimental about the Nativity; any fool can feel like a Christian at
Christmas. But Easter is the main event; if you don't believe in the
resurrection, you're not a believer."
While Christmas has become so absorbed in commercialism, secular
trapping, and sentimentalities, it is hard for Holy Week and Easter to
fall victim to the same, although each year, businesses are doing their
best with Easter bunnies, baskets, eggs, and the like. However, it's a
harder sell because death-resurrection simply doesn't evoke the same
"feelings" as a baby's birth.
Holy Week and Easter are blunt, even shocking. Christ dies. Christ is
resurrected. And both have to do with us humans and the world in which
we live. Both have to do with our sin (death) and our being made alive
(resurrected). I think John Irving is right: it is the main event.
Holy Week and Easter speak to all who are afraid, caught up in their
sins, feeling hopeless, sick and tired of life being a treadmill
existence, those who only see everything going to hell in a hand basket.
Holy Week and Easter say that life can be transformed by the power that
comes through Jesus Christ. We can wallow in our dying or start reveling
in being made alive.
Editor's note: to read earlier devotionals, please see:
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