photo © 2011 Ty Nigh , Flickr | found via Wylio.com

When you are small, the wonder of an Easter egg hunt is exiting. But as you grow older, the awe of the experience begins to fade. I remember a particular Easter when I had to make a choice: Would I listen to my older cousin or would I do what was right.

It was Easter and I was six. All of the grandkids were sent upstairs into the bedroom while the adults went outside to hide eggs. The problem was that the bedroom window faced the main part of the yard. What my cousin saw as an opportunity, my gut told me was an obstruction of justice, a desecration of the wonderful art of hide and seek, the surprise of finding Easter eggs.

Inevitably, I followed his lead and that day we were like the spies sent into Jericho. We watched from that upstairs window as the adults hid the eggs. Rather than experiencing the wonder of actually discovering eggs, we knew exactly where to look. The whole experience was sanitized.

John’s resurrection account
There is a one-in-four chance that on Easter Sunday your church community will reflect on John 20: an account of the greatest event in history—the resurrection of Jesus. The resurrection is the most beautiful thing that the church has to offer the world. Nevertheless, each year it becomes the “old familiar story” instead of the fresh account of God transforming all of reality. It is as though the resurrection loses its shock value, that it has become sanitized.

It is interesting to see how the author of John’s gospel tells his story. There are some striking themes that can very easily be missed if we are not careful. Notice how this good news of Jesus begins: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made” (John 1.1-3). [Read more...]