The Lenten period characterized by forty days of fasting and prayer has come to an end as we celebrate the Easter festival on Sunday. This is one of the most significant Christian festivals as it marks the liberation of humanity from the power of darkness.
The climax for the preparations of this event starts with Palm Sunday when Jesus triumphally entered Jerusalem riding on a donkey then followed by the Holy Week that starts on Monday leading to Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and eventually Easter. This is the busiest week in the life of a priest as it is marked by daily corporate worship and rehearsals for complicated liturgies for certain special services.
One such important and complicated service is the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday which is marked by baptism service, renewal of baptism vows, service of the work and finally the setting of the new fire and lighting of the paschal candle. These are beautiful and important services in the life of a Christian.
The lighting of the paschal candle symbolizes the resurrection and light of Christ, and is carried in procession into the church, dispelling the darkness. The darkness that symbolizes the powers of the devil is dispelled and there is new life in the resurrected Christ. The story of the resurrection of Christ according to the Markan account talks of women visiting the tomb of Jesus early in the morning. It seems as if their reason for going to the tomb early in the morning was not to see whether Jesus has resurrected or not but to probably anoint his body.
However, their major obstacle the big stone that was used to seal the tomb hence the question; “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?” They needed someone muscular, probably a man, to help them with rolling the stone and this was their major problem. Upon arriving at the tomb, they were surprised that the stone was already rolled away and their problem had been solved. However, the second problem of not finding the body of Jesus as they anticipated was awaiting. We live in a world where there are many stones that need to be rolled away for us in order for us to enjoy a joyful and peaceful life.
Such stones in our world include the current invasion of Ukraine by Russia, recent earthquakes in Turkey and Syria in which over 10,000 people were killed, the economic recession in most parts of the world resulting in many countries experiencing inflation in double figures, food shortages, and global warming that has caused extreme weather patterns in most parts of the world. Recently severe floods hit Southern Africa and over 200 people were killed in Malawi. Such is the troubled world in which we live.
However, though darkness covers our beloved world we do not lose faith because the Easter story reminds us that no amount of darkness can overcome the light of Christ. The gospel of John reminds us that “In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John 1:4-5). Though we encounter darkness on a daily basis let us keep the Easter flame alive - nothing can surpass the light of Christ. I shall end with the collect for Easter from the Book of Common Worship:
Lord of all life and power,
who through the mighty resurrection of your Son
overcame the old order of sin and death
to make all things new in him:
grant that we, being dead to sin
and alive to you in Jesus Christ,
may reign with him in glory;
to whom with you and the Holy Spirit
be praise and honour, glory and might,
now and in all eternity.
Have a blessed and spirit-filled Easter and in your celebrations remember to save our mother earth.
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For me, Jesus was most viciously murdered in large part because he did not in the least behave in accordance to such corrupted and greedy human conduct and expectation — and in particular because he was nowhere near to being the vengeful, wrathful behemoth so many people seemingly wanted or needed their savior to be and therefore believed he’d have to be. Maybe Christ died in large part because people consciously or subconsciously want(ed) and/or need(ed) their creator’s nature to be a reflection of theirs. And, yes, Jesus also offended some high priests, money changers and Romans in-charge. I, a believer in Christ’s unmistakable miracles, can imagine many 'Christians' likely finding inconvenient, if not annoying, trying to reconcile the conspicuous inconsistency in the fundamental nature of the New Testament’s Jesus with the wrathful, vengeful and even jealous nature of the Old Testament's Creator. While he was no pushover, Jesus fundamentally was about compassion and charity. He clearly would not tolerate the accumulation of tens of billions of dollars by individual people — especially while so many others go hungry and homeless. Today, when a public figure openly supports a guaranteed minimum income, he/she is nevertheless deemed communist/socialist and therefore somehow evil by many institutional Christians. This, while Christ's teachings epitomize the primary component of socialism — do not hoard morbidly superfluous wealth in the midst of poverty.
Christ practiced and preached the opposite of what enables the most horrible acts of human cruelty to occur on this planet. Sadly, sometimes those atrocious acts are allowed to remain a buried secret. Institutional Christianity/Christians [i.e. those most resistant to Christ’s fundamental teachings of non-violence, compassion and non-wealth] seem to insist upon creating their Creator’s nature in their own fallible and often angry, vengeful image; for example, proclaiming at publicized protests that 'God hates' such-and-such group of people. Actually, Jesus likely enjoyed a healthy laugh over a good-albeit-clean joke with his disciples, now and then. But few theists can imagine the divine having a good sense of humor. Often being the most vocal, they make very bad examples of Christ’s fundamental message, especially to the young and impressionable. This is why I openly critique those in public life who claim to be Christian yet behave nothing like Christ nor his basic teachings. Many institutional 'Christians' may find inconvenient, if not plainly annoying, trying to reconcile the conspicuous inconsistency in the fundamental nature of the New Testament’s Jesus with the wrathful, vengeful and even jealous nature of the Old Testament's Creator. The Biblical Jesus most profoundly washed his disciples' feet, the act clearly revealing that he took corporeal form to serve. And that he, as a hopeful example of the humility of the divine, joined humankind in our miseries, joys and everything in between. Followers of Islam and Judaism generally believe, however, that Jesus did exist but was not a divine being, albeit Islam teaches that Jesus was a prophet. After all, how could any divine being place himself/itself down to the level of humans — and even lower, by some other standards? How could any divine being not be a physical conqueror — far less allow himself to be publicly stripped naked, severely beaten and murdered in such a belittling manner? But [for me at least] this makes Jesus even greater, not less divine. A believer in Christ's unmistakable miracles, I tend to also believe that the Almighty actually doesn't need or desire to be worshipped. ‘Houses of worship’ are meant for the parishioners, divinely intended to be for the soul what health clinics/spas, even hospitals, are for the body and mind. Also, the Ten Commandments were/are not meant to obey in order to appease/please God but rather intended for Its human creation’s benefit, to keep people safe and healthy.