Thoughts on Easter

(picture: blossoms outside our window)


Rolling Away the ‘White-Washed’ Tombs
By Emily T. Wierenga

“Come and listen … come and listen to what He’s done.”

These David-Crowder lyrics are a peaceful balm for my weeping heart.

I am crying not for those who don’t know Jesus; after all, they have yet to meet Him. I am crying for the many ‘Christians’ whose tomb remains sealed this Easter. For them, Christ may have never risen. And what is the force holding their stones in place? Hypocrisy.

We live in a world of Pharisees. Churchgoers who wear large crosses around their necks, WWJD bracelets and Nike shoes. Individuals who slander other races and then thank God that they are not like those ‘sinners.’ People who claim to love Jesus yet hurt their environment, shun their neighbors, turn their back on the poor, divorce their spouses, ignore their children, and dance with the devil.

If we rewind 2,000 years and walk in the dusty footsteps of Jesus, we’ll encounter the same ‘holy-rollers.’ Pharisees believing they know the right way to the kingdom of God, and ignoring the hippy-rebel Jesus whose peaceful, loving lifestyle only makes them yearn for a powerful, demanding, ‘God-like’ King.

To risk crossing the line, I will compare Jesus to Shane Clairborne, author of The Irresistible Revolution and founder of ‘The Simple Way.’ Shane is a long-haired, plainly-dressed, ‘hippy’ follower of Jesus who lives with the poor and serves them, day and night. He cares for the environment, as obvious by his vegetable-oil fueled-van; he loves people – everyone from all walks of life – as evident by his open-home; he refuses to sell out to media’s voice by not watching TV (he plants flowers in old TV sets instead) and he speaks with firm yet gentle conviction to the ‘church.’

I will compare the Pharisees to the ‘Protestant Christian’ Walton Family, otherwise known as the richest family in the world. Ironically, Walmart-founder Sam Walton said one of his secrets to success was keeping the store open later than other stores – especially during the Easter season. My guess it wasn’t so he could share the true meaning of Easter with his customers.

Sam Walton was anti-charity; “We feel very strongly,” he wrote, “that Wal-Mart really is not, and should not be, in the charity business.” Money that Wal-Mart donated to charity, he reasoned, would only come out of the pockets of “either our shareholders or our customers.” He also refused to pay his workers more than he had to, and, as explained in his 1992 autobiography, Made in America, he didn’t believe in giving “any undeserving stranger a free ride.”

Add this to the fact that he professed to share the Christian faith and attended The Presbyterian Church every Sunday, and you have the ingredients for a powerful package of hypocrisy. Sadly, as everyone knows, hypocrisy is the father of disillusionment.

One of my favorite parts of the New Testament portrays Jesus walking through the fields on the Sabbath, picking grain for Him and His disciples to eat. Confronted by the Pharisees, he explained that the Sabbath was made for the Son of Man, not vice-versa. On another occasion, he blatantly healed a man on the holy day; turning to face the piercing looks of the ‘righteous,’ he asked them “Which is lawful on the Sabbath? To do good, or do evil? To save a life, or to destroy it?” (Luke 6:9)

Jesus was a hippy-loving lover of the environment, of the poor, of the outcast. He hated hypocrisy. He despised the actions of those ‘white-washed tombs.’

For me, the miracle lays not so much in Jesus dying for the non-believers. After all, as previously stated, they have yet to meet him; they have yet to accept or deny Him. The miracle of the cross lies in him dying for the very people who professed to know God, who professed to be righteous. He died for “Christians” who will never understand the meaning of the word. He died for people who slandered him and praised His father.

As independent artist Elliot Smith sings, “I’ll never know you now, but I’ll love you anyhow.” For me, that is the message of Jesus for today’s ‘White-Washed Tombs.’