Happy Easter 2020!

Hello, World!  Happy Easter!

I hope all of you are faring well. We are fine; well, no one is fine, but we are thankful to not be sick. Our hearts and prayers go out to those who suffer and those that grieve loved ones lost from this horrible disease.  Like all of you, we are hopeful that better days are near.  For Christians around the world, Easter assures us of that hope, and much more!

Many of you recognize ‘Hello, World’ as the print command a computer programmer will use to test their basic knowledge of an unfamiliar language. But from my shelter-in-place, now on Day 27 (!) here in Silicon Valley, it’s a cry that taps into the fundamental need all of us humans have to connect with others – and I believe also to connect with God.

This is my second annual Easter letter! The first letter a year ago was borne out of some discussions with a few very thoughtful friends who claimed Jesus never existed – that he is a mere mythic figure, a legend.  

I took them seriously and learned a lot. Short answer: if we accept the historical records that his contemporaries Nero Claudius and Pontius Pilate existed, or say Alexander the Great, who lived a few centuries earlier, then Jesus of Nazareth certainly walked the Earth too.  

But more than that, I learned that research at Michigan State in the 1970’s has since developed to persuade most academics that publish research in ancient history, that the Resurrection of Jesus has a quite compelling historical basis.

I asked a friend of ours what I should write about this Easter. Her response was simply “This!” – the pandemic. I hope there is something here for everyone, not just those who lean towards God in times like these.  In that vein, there is a fine article published yesterday in the New York Times with suggestions of how we might reflect on suffering.

Crises always beg the questions: Is God in control? Does God care? Does God even exist?  

Who is in Control?

As we approach Easter, I’m reminded by the crisis faced by Jesus’s followers as they saw their leader arrested, nailed to a cross, and then slowly die in agonizing pain. Their crisis was shatteringly existential, as their Lord and worldview were simultaneously crushed. 

The questions above must have raged in their minds.  

Only a few days prior Jesus had entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. He and his followers were given a hero’s welcome, heralded by the people with hopes that the Messianic King, the ‘Son of David’, had finally arrived. God had promised this King through the prophet Samuel in about 1000 BC.  Between then and the time of Christ, the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah also spoke about this Son of David who would usher in an age of righteousness, peace and justice. 

His disciples had left everything to follow him for his brief 3-year public ministry.  On a daily basis, He amazed them with his life of purity, wisdom, truth, courage, compassion, plus numerous miracles, wonders and signs – and most of all – His love. But after his arrest, they were afraid to be seen with him. Peter denied him 3 times.  The crucifixion was a cruel and arrogant statement by the ruling powers that Jesus was not the Messiah, that the religious leaders who pressed for his death were in the right, and that Rome was destined to rule over them for a long time. 

When a battered Jesus, after being tortured by guards, was brought before Pilate to defend himself, Pilate asked, “Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?” 

Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above.” – John 19

Pilate’s central mission as the regional governor was to keep the peace and keep the tax monies flowing to Rome. He cynically balanced the wishes of the local religious leaders and his superiors to stay in power.  

But, the question is – who was really was in control?  Who prayed in the Garden the night before, “not my will, but thine.” – Luke 22

3 days later, Jesus rose from the dead. A movement that changed the world was ignited on the day of Pentecost, 50 days after the Resurrection. 

Nero Claudius, the Roman emperor during the growth of the early church, ruled a sprawling landmass about ½ the size of today’s China. He claimed to be divine, and brutally persecuted Christians – burning them alive on poles to light the streets at night, and feeding them to lions by day for the entertainment of himself and the masses. In the face of this persecution, this crisis, Christianity spread across the empire, with congregations in cities from Jerusalem to Rome and beyond. 

Nero died in 68 AD. Christianity steadily continued to displace paganism. In 380 AD, it was decreed the official religion of the Roman Empire.

So, who indeed really was in control?  

And What About Now?                 

Jesus is otherwise known as ‘the great physician’. He healed all manners of diseases and even brought the dead back to life. He said, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”  – John 11

Covid-19 is a horrible disease. We are fortunate to have amazingly gifted public health and medical professionals working around the clock to selflessly care for patients and advance therapies and vaccines.  They are heroes that deserve our admiration and prayers. 

But Jesus talked extensively about another, even more horrible epidemic. It’s called death.  It’s the one disease that modern medicine will never cure.  It manifests from birth in a moral disease of the heart that afflicts all of us. An outward sign of this disease are the social ills of this world, which emanate from diseased hearts borne out of our failure to fully love God and our fellow humans. An internal sign is a restlessness and ache in the human heart, which like so many other of His teachings has found expression in art, music and literature:

“You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you”. – St. Augustine of Hippo, Confessions, 398 AD

“What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words by God himself”. – Blaise Pascal, Pensees, 1670 

“If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world”. (emphasis added) – CS Lewis, Mere Christianity, 1952 

Jesus taught extensively about ‘another world’ that he called the ‘Kingdom of God’ – which He says “is in our midst”.    

Crises remind us we are not in control. We live on Earth, not in Heaven. Life on Earth is hard, and suffering is part and parcel. Christ promised suffering would come to his disciples in spades, and so in love He instructs and models how to deal with it.

Jesus of Nazareth – God in the flesh – lived the life we all should live. He mourns with those that mourn and rejoices with those that rejoice. God died on the cross to save us from death, and rose again so that we can join Him now in the Kingdom of God, if we trust in Him. 

“Where, O death, is thy victory? Where, O death, is thy sting?”      

Jesus invites us, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” – Matthew 11

He is risen. He is risen indeed! Happy Easter!