A Time of Hope

IT'S not surprising people think Christians are nuts, especially at this time of year.

It seems incomprehensible that the story of Jesus rising from the dead after being brutally beaten and then nailed to a tree could be anything but mumbo jumbo.

Resurrection seems so unreal. It's the strange thought that our lives now are like seeds, yet to become flowers.

It's a nice notion, but hardly realistic to most of the world.

Too good to be true, perhaps - something even the wildest visionary never dared to dream.

On the other hand, death seems pretty real.

It keeps us counting birthdays and the death of loved ones leaves an aching and empty place behind.

So we generally try to ignore that reality.

This year, as on most years at this time, there are audacious attempts to disguise the gritty reality of the Easter story.

There's vulgarity, of course.

Leading chocolatier Thorntons have created a purple, pink, yellow, green and turquoise Easter egg combining this motto Passio Factionis (passion for fashion) with the Dutch family coat-of-arms.

Another famous 2008 Easter egg has been designed by David Beckham's tattooist, Louis Molloy.

And, in London, chocolate maker Julien Regnaut has an egg on sale for $1200.

Then there are the irrelevancies that come at Easter time.

A few years ago, two Romanian astronomers announced they had figured the "exact" time of Jesus's death and resurrection.

Employing information about the revolution of the planets within 26-35AD, the astronomers concluded Jesus Christ died at 3pm on the first Good Friday, April 3, 33AD and rose again at 4am on April 5.

Maybe. But whatever time the events happened, Easter is surely the centrepoint of time. Long ago, God saw a culture of worldly destruction and gave it a message of creation.

Easter, at its core, is what theologian Harvey Cox calls "God's last laugh".

At the end of the trial and crucifixion, Jesus's enemies thought they had won. But God laughed. God laughed at the idea that death could get the last word.

German theologian Jurgen Moltmann wrote: "Easter morning is the sunrise of the coming of God and the morning of new life and it is the beginning of the future of the world.

"The laughter of the universe is God's delight. It is the universal Easter laughter in Heaven and Earth."

Easter, if it is a true story, has cosmic significance. It means God loves the world -- the whole world, not only the believers.

At the centre of it all is the enigmatic figure of Jesus. He was different. That's what made Him so misunderstood and got him into so much trouble with the religious elite of his day.

But his difference also attracted the crowds. It was something beyond him multiplying loaves and fishes and walking on the water.

What he taught was different. He said "love one another" - even your enemies.

He spoke of the weak being powerful, of the poor being rich. Then he said he would die and come back to life.

Writer Frederick Buechner said there really was no story about the resurrection in the New Testament. Except in the most fragmentary way.

"There is no poetry about it. Instead, it is simply proclaimed as a fact. Christ has risen. In fact, the very existence of the New Testament itself proclaims it," Buechner said.

"Unless something very real, indeed, took place on that strange, confused morning, there would be no New Testament, no Church, no Christianity."

The sceptical will say Easter is a convenient lie, or a deadly superstition.

But Easter is not cute like a bunny or pretty like a coloured chocolate egg. It is a deadly serious life and death paradox. And so, as they have for thousands of years, Christians today will gather to celebrate the Resurrection.

They know there may be storms ahead, there may be violence and sorrow, but they can face all of it knowing that no frozen conclusion gets the last word. Along with God we get the last laugh.

The story of Easter is the story of God's wonderful window of divine surprises.

It offers freedom from burdens, guilt and inner turmoil. It promises liberation, hope and new life.