We are going home to Indiana this weekend, Easter weekend, because I get a 4-day weekend off (Christian Lutheran college). I really can’t take this drive every 2 mos. and our pocketbook can’t either. But my husband always wants to go – his parents are older & having health problems. And I want to see Raven & Caspian (as well as my daughter). But it’s a hard, hard trip and I hate it. I really hate it.
Thoughts about Easter. Memories of Easter holidays. Dressing up like a doll, always in a new dress, going to church with a little purse I would carry and sometimes white gloves. Often had a dress to match my sister’s but a little different color, something like that. Such foll-de-roll. The whole church dress up thing for Easter, so fakey. Curling my light brown hair with bobby pins the night before.
We would wake up to a basket with candy and toys as a kid. In my pre-youth years, I always wanted the same exact thing (and always got it). A large, chocolate Easter egg with coconut cream filling. Dark chocolate if possible. That was my favorite, once-a-year thing. It would last for weeks or months afterward, as I would take a little bite each day, to make it last a long time!! So gross! It would be sitting in my room on a desk all that time.
We would have one of those huge dinners, with turkey or ham, or both, and all the extra dishes of food, homemade, all of it. Rolls, mac & cheese, green beans, mashed potatoes, 3 kinds of pie, creamy corn. It was always a big family dinner day.
My dad, if he went to church any time of year to please my mom, would go on Christmas and Easter. My connection to church was always strong, although I wrote at age 15 that I did not believe people in India were going to hell. As a kid I attended Sunday school regularly, but from my memories of it, the friends there were a slightly different group than those I hung with at school, even in elementary. The kids at my church were the rich kids in town. At school, I hung out with all different classes of kids. Some of my best friends were known as “the poor kids” but the way I knew them was Girl Scouts, for one, and recess, for two. We would walk home together until we had to separate to go to our own houses.
To this day, I love coloring Easter eggs and do it w/ my grandkids. It is just plain fun. I always loved colors in paints, crayons, and Easter eggs. I often drew a white wax “Jesus cross” on the egg before coloring it. Spirituality was always a part of me. However, I always liked Palm Sunday and the love of the people for Jesus more than the whole Easter story. I understand the story of sacrifice, and believe Jesus died on the cross. But it doesn’t matter to me whether or not He rose from the dead. This is the entire basis for Christian belief, we are told by many — He died “for our sins”. But wasn’t His power and Who He was built on the fact that He changed people’s lives, taught them to love one another and to treat others as you would like to be treated? People left their fishing nets and followed Him. He preached the sermon on the mount and changed how we see the world and each other. That is the power of Christ.
So let’s say He rose from the tomb after 3 days. Okay, then everyone sees Him and believes in Him because of one miracle He did? He rose other people from the dead, so He could do it for Himself if He wanted to. But then what?? The Bible stories say his body went straight up into the sky and heaven. From what we now know of space, this seems very silly. It just doesn’t make any sense. Belief has to also jive with science somehow. Not make fun of science as this does.
A talk from ‘Abdu’l-Baha explains that perhaps after the crucifixion, the disciples lost faith. Their Lord had been crucified! How could this happen? Wasn’t He the Promised One to lead them into the Kingdom? Wasn’t He to be the new king? So they lost their faith. After 3 days, Mary Magdelene regained her faith in her Lord and encouraged the others. She revitalized their belief, reminded them of all the teachings He brought to the world, and they regained their confidence and belief. This makes more sense to me than the other way.
Sacrifice is the ultimate lesson. But I just can’t buy the story of his body leaving earth and catapulting into the sky! It just makes no sense to me. I think God is greater than that, and actually JESUS is greater than that! He changed the world and it was never the same. He consorted with prostitutes and tax collectors and made them once again whole. This is what the spirit does for people. He is not Christ because of one miracle, or rising His own body from the dead. He is Christ because of how people were changed due to His short existence with us.
Doctor Grandma 