REBIRTH

Happy Spring!  I know that statement is a little “early”—the first day of Spring isn’t officially until next Wednesday—but if you look outside it’s here.  The big picture of course is “rebirth.”  The grass is coming back to life, trees are budding, birds are singing, and the early bloomers, the daffodils and crocuses, are on full display.  Rebirth!  That, of course, is an “Easter theme.”  I put that in quotes because historically Jesus’ death and resurrection has nothing to do with Spring.  Easter is not a myth of cyclical death and rebirth, like some of the other religious myths that were in the ancient world.  Easter is about a horrible death on a cross that happened to Jesus of Nazareth in either the year 30 or 33 CE.  And his resurrection is an event that happened a couple of days later when he came out of his tomb transformed and then appeared to his disciples.  Easter is first and foremost an event. 

Jesus used “death and rebirth” metaphors to explain ahead of time what it would mean, and his earliest witnesses used those same images and expanded on them.  Like seeds that “die” and are buried—only to come up and bear fruit.  But they can’t bear fruit unless they die first (John 12:24-25).  In this Sunday’s gospel reading he applies that same image to us.  So how have you “died”?  We love Spring—cute bunnies, pastels, flowers, etc.—but none of us want to “die”—to our selfishness, comfort, worldly attachments.  It is as stark as that.  Lent, the weeks leading up to Easter, emphasizes this more and more as Easter approaches.  With that, however, is an increasing emphasis also on the “resurrection,” the new life Jesus promises in following him—and how he actualizes that new life in us through the Holy Spirit.

So I encourage y’all to reflect on these things as you “smell the tulips” (and take allergy meds), and hear the invitation to follow Jesus into the life he offers, even if it means we lose some of ourselves, turning to him away from false promises in the world.  

Peace, Pr. Christian