not the end

Easter was a week ago. I was not ready. Many of you know and practice the traditions of Lent. My church loved Easter Sunday. We had fantastic music—a great choir, talented soloists, and congregational hymns full of the inspiring images of the resurrection. As a teenager I often got to play my trumpet. But...I learned nothing about Lent. I saw a few kids at my school with smudges on their foreheads on Ash Wednesday. And I knew that McDonald’s sold more fish sandwiches than usual. I never gave much time preparing my heart for Easter.

In twelve years of student ministry I have met students from various church backgrounds and I have worshipped in churches of various denominations. I gained an appreciation for Lent. I

t makes sense to me to take the weeks before Easter to reflect on the Gospel. I find that Sunday morning even more spectacular when I have done that.

This year the days before Easter were very busy. We spent a week in England and Wales visiting friends and camping in a national park. And we prepared for a visit from my wife’s brother and his family. They arrived Easter Sunday morning. So it was exciting for me to drive to Zaventem to get them, but even the morning of going to church my mind and heart were not focused on the Gospel.

One day while hiking in Wales we came across a massive rock stood on its end in the middle of some rolling hills. It was no Stonehenge, but it was very interesting. It must have been carried quite a distance by those ancient people because there were no other boulders to be seen. When my 5 year old daughter saw it she became very excited and shouted, “It’s the stone from Jesus’ grave!” It was amusing of course, but I admired my daughter. Her heart was focused on Easter and on Jesus.

Sometimes we treat Easter as the end of some amazing story. And on Monday or Tuesday we go back to life as usual. How about Easter as a sort of beginning? This year I hope Easter is the starting line of a great race. The starter’s pistol has been fired. Now “...let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” [Hebrews 12.2-3 (NIV]