The Emptiest of Days

“We have not king but Caesar!”
It was an empty boast:
Thus heretics wrung empty justice
From their Roman host.
And empty-hearted followers
Grieved empty prophesy:
An empty throne.  The empty king
Instead had filled a tree.

But empty exposition,
Assumed in empty pride,
Keep them from recognizing
The Peacemaker who died:
The Emptied God who overcame
The Self-willed’s empty doom.
And peace with God is now restored.
The proof?  The Empty Tomb.

Sources:
John 19:15 ❦ Luke 24:17-27 ❦ Luke 7:19-23
Hebrews 1:1-2 ❦ Psalm 22 ❦ Philippians 2:5-11
John 3:16 ❦ Romans 5:1-2

One of the things that impresses me most about the story of Jesus is the prophetic aspect.  According to Christian understanding, Jesus fulfilled all the prophesies associated with the snake-stamping deliverer first promised in Genesis 3, yet even his own disciples couldn’t see the connection until He explained it (Luke 24:17-27).  The main reason they didn’t recognize the fulfillment was because, over the previous four hundred years of prophetic silence, the commentators had figured out exactly what their Messiah would be like and what He would do.  They were certain of their interpretation’s correctness – after all, they had scripture on their side!  But, when the Messiah actually did turn up, He was everything prophesy had predicted, and not at all what they had expected.  The commentators had put more faith in their interpretation of scripture than they had in the scriptures themselves.  (That’s one reason I don’t get too excited about eschatology: so many interpreters were positive that their exposition of Revelations was the right one, and lived to be disappointed.  When the time does come, it’ll be exactly what was predicted, and, as with Jesus, not necessarily what we expect.)  In the coming year, I hope we all can hear God speak through the Bible: that we can see what it says, and not be misled by what we think it says!

He is Risen Indeed!

A Modern Easter Carol

"Spring bursts today!
For Christ is Risen and all the earth’s at play,"

Christina signed.
Yet brutal men strive as if their god had died.

There is no fun
Where Eden once bloomed, but bomb and blood and gun.

The peace on earth
Longfellow’s bells rang is not where Christ saw birth.

Yet the One Light
That played in Eden there rises just as bright.

He will suffice,
Who, through His eclipse, has assured Paradise.

That Christmas chime
Still reminds the faint the Live God acts in Time:

For Easter said
There is no god but God, Whose Son rose from the dead.

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Referenced Hymns:

An Easter Carol (Before 1896) Christina Rossetti  :  http://www.yourdailypoem.com/listpoem.jsp?poem_id=1062

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day (1863) Henry Wadsworth Longfellow  :  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Heard_the_Bells_on_Christmas_Day

Morning Has Broken (Circa 1931) Eleanor Farjeon  :  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morning_Has_Broken

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For years, our church had a banner that read: "Spring bursts today! For Christ is Risen and all the earth’s at play." And I thought it was as sappy a sentiment as I had ever seen. Years later, I looked through a book of Christina Rossetti’s poems, and was stunned to discover that saccharine observation was the opening of one of her Easter Carols. That banner rose considerably in my estimation, but not for the reason you may think. I was not moved by the poem, and still thought that stanza sounded silly, but it stands a an reassuring reminder that even great poets have off days.

Longfellow wrote his Christmas poem during the fiercest days of the American Civil War. He understood that, at such times, the sweeter sentiments of holiday celebrations are more likely to nauseate the heartsick, instead of encouraging them. But the bells’ essential song – "God is not dead, nor does He sleep" – remains truer than any pretty word pictures.

Morning Has Broken is another pretty song that, in my circles anyway, is considered too sentimental to be used in a worship service. Such dogmatic thinking deprives a congregation of the inspiration of a genuinely beautiful melody, and the artfully expressed doctrine and praise it supports. As with that funny old banner (which I wheedled away from the banner ladies when they were going to throw it out), what appears to be threadbare frivolity in grim times, can be, in fact, eternal Joy dressed in lace.

Wishing you undisguised joy this Easter! He is Risen, Indeed!