Almost Easter

Almost Easter is something that I coined after listening through a lecture we had this afternoon. As we approach Good Friday and the impending victory and triumph of Easter most neglect the solemn procession leading up to the glorious even of the resurrection. The resurrection marks the day when Jesus rose again after dying a horrible death, and with that defeated our most feared foe.

But with that we celebrate and remember an event so important for the basis of our faith when we continue with the theme “Almost Easter” and that is the theme which we constantly uphold and rave about. We say that “Yes, Jesus died BUT he rose again!” and with that we rave as our king who was dead and is now alive.

We give second thought to the feelings of despair, alienation, grief, abandonment, suffering, anxiety and the utter helpless state we go through when death arrives. The mention and designation we ascribe to in what we call Good Friday is somewhat of a paradox if we really embrace the meaning of the what those during those days went through when Jesus crucifixion and then his burial happened.

I remember the day when a terrible accident happened to our youth convoy journey from doing some Christian youth rallies came to an abrupt halt of feeling all pumped and exited to a mournful state when 3 youths died in the fatal car crash, and one of them was a member of the church that I was attending that time. I remember the feeling of how the reality of death loomed and to me that was the longest day I have ever experienced. It seemed that time stopped. And waking up the next day with the reality still looming was really disheartening. Until today, memories of that tragic event still haunts me. Sometimes I wish it never happened because nothing I can do will bring them back to life.

The feeling of emptiness, defeat and despair is real and it should be noted that this was what might have been the feeling brooding in the minds and hearts of people during Jesus’ crucifixion and his death and burial. And on the day we term as Holy Saturday, the reflection on the helpless feelings of the disciples was evidently real. Being a sabbath, and being a day when no work was allowed, the empty void of not being able to do something soon clouded the minds of those who hoped and loved Jesus.

When I reflect on it that way, putting myself in the sandals of the disciples, not understanding resurrection or the hope of Jesus’ immanent coming to life, it makes sense that this could be the longest day ever when God is absent and he is at best dead.

A reflection moving along the lines of having no hope conjures a real experience that leaps up to joy when the announcement that the grave is empty is ringed out. Only a real understanding of the lostness of Christ will we be able to appreciate a resurrected one. Something less than that is something I call “Almost Easter,” where sights are only set on resurrection. If so how can resurrection happen if there is no real death, no real feeling of abandonment and grief?

As Christians that say our impending faith is solidly laid on Jesus who died and was raised up from the clutches of death and defeated it, we live prematurely living our Lord’s story when we jump the gauntlet of Holy Saturday.