Carry the Spirit of Easter into tomorrow

Remembering a column from 10 years ago that still rings true today

Author’s note: This is a column I wrote for the Easter Morning edition of The Hutchinson in 2016. It feels as relevant today, a decade later, if not more so.

If at times, it seems that I’m frustrated/upset/exhausted/irritated/depressed/tired, it’s because I see in us the capacity for such love and kindness, and the teachings of Jesus Christ offer a clear road map of how to be the best versions or ourselves. And yet, I’ve watched over my life as the Easter Message of love, sacrifice, and hope is perverted by those who work to blend faith and fear to secure their own power and use it as a means of control.

You are free to believe as you please, but I will believe what Christ said - “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

On this Easter Morning, I am grateful that I have people to love. I am grateful for the love of my family. I am grateful for the love of my friends and for the ways we help and support one another through life. I am grateful for a community that is rich and vibrant. And I am grateful for the people who support the good I try to do in the world.

March 26, 2016

Shouldn’t Easter Sunday last more than just one day?

Today is Easter Sunday.

Churches will hold sunrise services to watch a new day take shape and reflect on the symbol of the cross and Christ’s power over death. Children will awaken to baskets filled with unexpected goodness, and they’ll search for Easter Eggs and find them in places where yesterday there was nothing out of the ordinary. Families will gather around a table, from the oldest to the youngest, share a bountiful meal and celebrate the promise of spring and Christ’s resurrection. Christians throughout Kansas, the nation, the world, will hear the message that Jesus has risen and the hope and faith that God’s love conquers even the universal fear of death.

Then it will be Monday again.

And frankly, on Monday I expect it will once again feel as if Jesus has died all over again. We won’t hear the message of hopefulness that fills the Easter holiday. We won’t hear that Christ’s love is more powerful than fear. Experience tells us that all the hope and faith of Easter is largely contained to one day in the spring – the Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox – and that all the days after it will return to being just like all the days before it.

In Kansas, we’ll return to hearing about legislation that contradicts Christ’s message. We’ll hear about legislation that doesn’t include people or show them an ounce of compassion but instead excludes them from our community and works actively to deny Christ’s love to those most in need and, perhaps, who want it. Nationally, we’ll return to talk about how America is faltering, and it’s the fault of this person or that person, one policy or another, people who don’t try hard enough at life or people who hope to find refuge and sanctuary in America’s abundance.

We’ll forget all the messages in the Bible that preceded Christ’s death and resurrection. We won’t reflect on the man who healed a leper, who defended a prostitute, who reached out and showed mercy and compassion to those with physical and mental ailments. We’ll ignore our covenant with God that in exchange for his grace and love for us, we will extend the same to others, to “bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”

We’ll hear about what’s good for business and very little about what’s good for people, and we’ll gloss over the fact that Christ chased the merchants and money-changers from the temple, saying: “My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.”

On Monday, we’ll hear about how we should be scared of the world. There is ISIS and immigrants and refugees and in each of those groups, a danger lurks that threatens our way of life, even our very existence. Yet, the Christian way of life, as the Bible teaches, is one of faith and love that does not carry troubled hearts or fear any worldly force.

On Monday, less than a full rotation around the sun from Easter, we will hear that the world is falling apart, that kids don’t know what’s good for them, that people just want a handout, that in order to make the world better we must fear more, hide what we already have and give more to the wealthy.

And with it, all the promise and hope of Easter will have withered.

In America’s most dynamic and prosperous times, some of our greatest achievements occurred when our actions aligned with the message of Easter Sunday. When a group of people fought for the idea that all men are created equal. During a Great Depression when the rest of the world propped up dictators, we elected someone who told us everyone deserved a new deal and that the only thing to fear was fear itself. Or when we elected a relatively young man who hopefully asked us to dream bigger than we had ever thought imaginable.

We used to look together at the world and see what needed to be done to build a nation, a state, a community, and then we set to work to make it happen. We believed that we held within us what was required to do good, even great, things. We believed that America was an exceptional country, that it was great, because we had compassion and love in our hearts for our neighbors and that our wealth obliged us to make the world a better place. Or at least try.

Fear is not what brings comfort, strength or power. Hate and exclusion do not create peace or understanding. Greed does not create prosperity. Judgment does not create compassion.

Love is the agreement we have with God. He loves us, and we show that love to others, and through our compassionate efforts the world discovers that Christ’s love is for them, too.

Jesus spent his life trying to show us that, and he died and rose again that we might have faith in his teachings. We recognize and celebrate that on Easter morning with a great amount of fanfare.

And then, it will be Monday again. And on that day we have a choice.

Jason Probst is news editor for The Hutchinson News.

Happy Easter!