It's now a week after Easter Sunday. And I've been thinking about the connection between chocolate and Easter? Actually, isn't it because of the fasting during Lent?
"Boooo!" I say. Humbug. Who wants to think about fasting? And from chocolate? Not me! I'd rather picture that chocolaty goodness melting in my mouth and sliding down my happy gullet.
And what's the deal with Good Friday? "Boooo!" I say to Good Friday and to the death of Jesus for that matter. Who wants to think about our dead Lord hanging on the cross? I don't want to have that picture in my mind. I want to think about the resurrection goodness of the risen Jesus, gleaming in the sunshine. No dirt or sweat on his face. No blood on his clothes. A clean, alive Jesus is much more of a happy thought.
So can't you have Easter without Good Friday? A resurrection without a death? The reward of chocolate without the denial of it?
So many want to just forget Good Friday altogether and focus on the end of the week, Easter Sunday. Hurray! But I don't believe the resurrection can have the same meaning to us if we don't experience first the brokenness, the death, the blood, the sweat, and the tears, the silence and the reverence that is Good Friday. Not only was Jesus supposed to die, but maybe we too are supposed to feel the weight of it and in a way, and celebrate it and rejoice in it. Yes, I believe that to be true. Otherwise we run the risk of making the resurrection of Easter just one more celebration without the contrast of his death. No back story. One more piece of chocolate for our happy gullets without the benefit of ever going without.
