Easter and the Egg
When I say Easter, what comes first to your mind? Maybe the answer is Resurrection - and fittingly so, as that is what the story now called “Easter” is all about (even though the word Easter is not in the Bible). But it is perhaps even more possible that when you hear “Easter” you think first of either Eggs or Bunnies. After all, that’s certainly what you’d see if you went to the local grocery store. Just as the Jesus story at Christmas can often and easily be overshadowed by Christmas Trees and Santa Claus, so the Christ story at Easter can get lost in the details of Easter Eggs and Easter Bunnies.
So, let me try to redeem the image of the Egg just a bit. First, it doesn’t take too radical a stretch of the imagination to see the image of a tomb in the shape of an egg. Both are cave-like, and both have a kind of hard shell surrounding delicate things inside. Still more, and more fun, eggs can be made to roll…just as, in the resurrection story, the tomb was opened by “rolling back the stone.” (Easter egg rolls anyone?!)
But second, and maybe more importantly, an egg is a wonderful illustration of a very important transition point in life. Take any normal egg into your hand and you are holding something that is either destined to fly or on its way to becoming breakfast. And if you can forgive the slight irreverence, Jesus in the tomb is a bit like that egg: one who has been slated and served sunny-side up…or maybe, just maybe, one who, like a bird, is destined to fly the skies of the rising sun.
Business guru John Kotter has famously said that “culture eats strategy for breakfast.” And so it almost happened to Jesus: the cultural superpowers of religion (Judaism) and politics (Rome) combined to seemingly swallow up God’s strategy of saving the world in Jesus. And, as Jesus lay in that Egg-like tomb having been gobbled up by “the powers that be” in the world, it sure seemed true that culture had indeed eaten strategy for breakfast. But Easter morning is the grand declaration that the opposite actually happened - the stone was rolled back and the tomb found empty. And the rumor on the street was, oddly, that LIFE came out - real life, true life, eternal life - something much more like a bird flying than a breakfast sandwich.
So, if the tomb is like an egg, then Easter cracked it. And the world will never be the same because of it. All who thought they were gaining strength by putting Jesus in the tomb were in for a great surprise: in doing their worst, God did God’s best. And so we sing on Easter Sunday, “Up from the grave he arose, with a mighty triumph o’er his foes.”
So if anything gets swallowed up at Easter, hopefully it's not the Easter Eggs. They are far too beautiful for that. What gets swallowed up instead is death itself because, as the news of Easter so boldly declares, “death has been swallowed up in victory.” The end is LIFE!
But please do notice also that Easter is not only an event but also an invitation. Jesus is called “first” because others will follow. What happened to Him is to be what happens to us. So, we enter the egg-like tomb with Jesus …and, like Him, we are to be hatched: not for breakfast but for flying. C.S. Lewis said it this way: “It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining in the egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad” (Mere Christianity, IV.8).
As with Jesus, so with us. Easter cracks the egg - and LIFE comes out! Thanks be to God.
Grace & Peace,
Ross Dieleman
The Resurrection of Jesus
28 After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. 2 And suddenly there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. 4 For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men. 5 But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. 6 He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he[a] lay. 7 Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead,[b] and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.’ This is my message for you.” 8 So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. 9 Suddenly Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him. 10 Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”