I was speaking to the Dean of the Wellington Cathedral a few days ago and he told me that a visitor commented on his way out that, “it was such a shame that so many great Easter worship services were held at a time when everyone goes away!”
That’s the way it is these days. Easter, the most significant event of the Christian calendar is swapped, by pagans and saints alike, for the enjoyment of time away. Yet around the world, countless millions of people will be taking leave without pay, journey for miles on foot, or even risking their lives for the roller coaster experience commonly known a Holy Week.
Most people over 40 know the Easter story. They know that Jesus Christ was crucified, died, buried and on the third day he rose again. Yet what we often fail to realise is that the Easter event mirrors our own experience of faith. The short journey of Jesus is a journey that many people also travel, though it may not involve being crucified.
By the time you read this it will be Holy Saturday. The thing about Saturday is that the church has very little to say. Thursday remembers Jesus final words, culminating in the awfulness of the garden of Gethsemane, his arrest, beatings and dodgy trial. Friday witnesses Jesus’ death and the grief of the disciples. Saturday is a day of confusion - God has gone missing, nothing makes any sense anymore. There’s not just a divine silence, rather a complete absence. Sunday is the day when everything finally makes sense. Saturday is a problem.
You see Saturday is largely avoided because there is nothing to do. It’s like being frozen in a religious time warp - everything stands still. God used to make sense, but now nothing makes sense. Hopes, expectations and beliefs all come to standstill. No one want to be in that space, so we keep busy on Saturday until Sunday finally rolls around.
What I find interesting is that many people of faith live with Saturday all too often. What was once a vibrant and dynamic faith suddenly seems dead. God, who once felt close feels almost entirely absent.
Jesus told his disciples this would happen. We all experience the Easter journey in one way or another. The tragedies, the small deaths, the silence and aloneness and then the resurrection and happiness. The problem is, you can’t get from the tragedy of Friday to the resurrection of Sunday without the lostness of Saturday.
Why? This question has plagued me for years. It’s often used as the basis for declaring God uncaring and unjust. However, I’ve never found that much help either.
Easter is about growing up. God is there, but not oiling the hard path. It’s about a new faith, a better understanding of ourselves and God. Easter offers us the challenge of negotiating a new way with an old faith. Easter is about being reborn. We come out different from the way we went in. At some stage Sunday comes our way and it will have been worth the wait.