Easter, History and Mystery

Awaken, you buried seeds asleep in your earthen tombs.

Rise up with joy to break forth the hard coffins of your shells.

Your Easter time has come; the song of the dove is heard over

the softening land.

Winter has hidden, and spring now dances on your graves to

waken the dead.

Awaken, seeds of holiness buried deep within me.

Rise up to fulfill your destiny whose time has come.

For sanctity is scribbled bold within my blood and brain.

Onward and beyond have I been called even before I felt

the sun or knew the earth around me.

May spring enchant the saint, shy and hesitant within me

and set the rhythm for my sluggish feet in a dance of holy

yearning.

It may come as a surprise, but Christians do not believe Jesus rose from the dead! Contrary to popular opinion he did not sit up, dust himself off, and walk out of the tomb on his own. The true Christian teaching is that Jesus was raised from the dead. The Spirit that enlivened him throughout his life was not defeated by death, but was a tangible presence his followers experienced even after he died.

That same life source/force breathes in every person, you and me included. The reality of the Spirit’s presence in us has to do with the fact that “sanctity is scribbled bold within my blood and brain;” there is a spiritual component to our DNA no matter what, if any, our religious beliefs. And because the Spirit is at the heart of us, we are urged from within to emerge from the graves that entomb us, the half-alive way we too often go about our days and our lives: “shy and hesitant,” and with “sluggish feet.”

A seed buried in the earth has within it the drive to become alive; so it was with Jesus and is with us. Death may be the end of our physical existence, but what is most essential lives on.

Easter is not just a matter of history (an event in Jesus’ life), but of mystery – the undefeatable force of life/spirit/God in each of us.