Easter 2014

Easter arrived here with storms and gloom preparing the way for Palm Sunday. The weather wrought pain throughout my body making a restful night impossible. So no church today. Is it any wonder that I feel some sympathy, perhaps even empathy for Jesus Christ today?

The hurt doesn’t even begin to match what He went through, yet it does focus my thoughts on the events that happened nearly two thousand years ago in a less clinical way than usual. There has been a running thread of sympathy for Satan in popular culture ranging from Milton’s Paradise Lost to the Rolling Stones Sympathy for the Devil. Where is the sympathy for Jesus, I wonder?

For all its inaccuracy, gore and blood fetishism, The Passion of the Christ did attempt just that ten years ago and became a phenomenon as a result. But that was a unique occurrence that came out of an independent movement outside of the media mainstream and is not likely to be repeated. The chosen few who rule the culture have no interest in morals, commandments, and redemption. Religion is something to me mocked and suppressed at all turns now.

Getting back to Easter, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has an interesting page up on the meaning of Easter. I like how it is presented and think it well represents the fundamental rule of missionary work, which is to keep things uncomplicated, accurate, and loving. You won’t find fire and brimstone there for Christ’s mission was one of salvation, not damnation.

The live chat questions from that page are something I’d like to answer in this post, since they are rather good queries.

Easter

A joyous Easter to all fellow believers and unbelievers alike!

I find Mark Chapter 16 to be fascinating for it shows how even the apostles were capable of disbelief in miracles. The first followers of Jesus to find he had risen again after being crucified and buried were not to be found among them. Instead, women were the first:

And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him.

And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun.

And they said among themselves, Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre?

And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away: for it was very great.

And entering into the sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment; and they were affrighted.

And he saith unto them, Be not affrighted: Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: he is risen; he is not here: behold the place where they laid him.

But go your way, tell his disciples and Peter that he goeth before you into Galilee: there shall ye see him, as he said unto you.

Shortly after that, Christ appeared to Mary Magdalene and when she told the eleven apostles they didn’t believe her. When two more encountered Jesus they weren’t believed either. It took the Savior showing up in person to convince them:

Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen.

For those who struggle with faith or think they have no faith it should be noted that the original apostles didn’t do so well in that department themselves. It is an understandable reaction to living in a harsh world and I’m sure they rationalized their disbelief quite well with perfect reasoning. Yet in the end they were wrong for Jesus lived and still does.

There are many good lessons in this account, but the one I’m dwelling on this Easter is how we can easily blind ourselves to the words of others. In a world filled with lies and the liars that tell them, there is a danger in trusting no one at all but ourselves. To a “doubting Thomas” such as myself, it is a needed message from time to time.

For Easter

One of the lessons I have learned from the Savior is that at the heart of all good acts lies sacrifice. One must go beyond selfish wishes, or even the instinct of self preservation in order to do good. What a world we would have if everyone behaved that way, but alas, too many think of themselves above all others.

I am grateful for such a role model and messiah. Hopefully, I will continue learning at His feet and become a better man.