by William Youngblood

Created on: January 25, 2010

Easter should be celebrated by people who adhere to a resurrection faith, because it is a celebration of life, and historical serendipity has placed Christians’ observance of Easter to coincide with Spring.

 For those who live in those parts of the country which must endure the severities of winter, the cold, gray, and apparently lifeless exteriors, the advent of Spring is a cause for joy and relief.  Longer days, increasing warmth, abundant sunshine, budding trees, greening lawns, bulbs peeking out, and birdsong gloriously greeting each new morning are welcomed with gratitude.

 They also are welcomed by persons of Christian faith as nature’s metaphors for resurrection, the triumph of life over death and all death’s expressions in this world which oppress the human creature.

 I realize it is a geographical coincidence that Spring coincides with that liturgical season we call Eastertide, which refers to the days between Easter Sunday and Pentecost. 

Nonetheless, what a marvelous coincidence!  For this is the liturgical season that, like Spring, bursts forth with life, with life’s possibilities and potential, and with the sense that God’s good Creation, and the human creature within it, have been redeemed and it is time to celebrate anew what God done for us.

 It also the season where we recall the biblical witness that Resurrection was not a one-time event, restricted to the garden tomb where Jesus had been buried so long ago.  Resurrection was a freeing of Jesus the Christ to be present not only to his disciples and friends who were his first followers, but also to succeeding generations of believers.  Eastertide reaffirms yearly that the Risen Christ is present with us no less that with Christians during the previous 20 centuries.

 And just as Jesus appeared in many different ways to different people following his Resurrection in the biblical accounts, so too do Christians expect the Risen Lord to be present to them in ways which are unique to their faith experience.  Perhaps the Risen Jesus will be in the midst of worship, or gatherings around the family dinner table, or at the bedside of a loved one, or during a graduation ceremony as families swell with pride in their children’s achievements.

 For those Christians who with marked relief emerge from the cold dormancy of Winter, Spring becomes nature’s reminder of what happened following Jesus’ dark and tragic encounter with death.  The Easter celebration is our faith’s affirmation of the Spring message: that new life bursts forth from the bonds of lifelessness.  Nature is our metaphor for the Resurrection experience, and of course, we should rightly celebrate that holy day where we remember that God has created life to persevere over death.

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