Easter As a Commoner

Happy Easter morning all. I’m taking a 10 day stretch away from the online world, but scheduled this

(Don't worry. I made sure the soft-bound was simulated leather.)

blog–an Easter reflection I contributed to the Mosaic Bible–to post in celebration of today.

If you’d like to see more from the Mosaic Bible, here is a special link to an 84 pg. excerpt which also includes a Christmas reflection by yours truly. :)

Many blessings on Easter, my friends.
Sarah

As a child, I starred in several church plays. And in this case, “starred” must be defined loosely. At Christmas, my friend Colleen was Mary. I was a snotty-nosed barnyard lamb nudging up to the manger to see what was going on. At Easter, the Mary role passed me by again, and having the wrong anatomy to be a disciple, I was awarded the role of a first-century peasant woman.

Despite being cast as a mere commoner, I loved belting out the Easter songs. Not all the songs, however, seemed fitting for me and my peasant band. The choruses about making way for Jesus, the king, rang true. As a peasant, I would have been excited to see royalty, to lay down my coat as a path for Jesus’ colt. But others perplexed me. I wondered why a peasant would join in the chorus to sing Jesus’ words, “I am the resurrection. Believe in me and live. Look to me for resurrection. For life is mine to give.” Could a commoner really expect to experience resurrection life and glory? But as I sang out with my fellow commoners, I gazed at our bathrobed Jesus, and I found the answer in the smiles on our faces. I felt the warmth of what Jesus had done for us, the normal first-century people, and my voice rang out all the more.

Death and resurrection was not a victory story limited to Jesus. Jesus died and rose from the grave as the first-but not the only-to experience real resurrection {1 Corinthians 15:22-23: Just as everyone dies because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life. But there is an order to this resurrection: Christ was raised as the first of the harvest; then all who belong to Christ will be raised when he comes back}. Neither was this death-and-life experience just a role shared by his mother, Mary, or his twelve disciples. The death-and-resurrection script was a script that expanded to include every person, every peasant, every commoner. In the here and now, we are all invited to die and be resurrected-to lay down an old life, full of flaws and dysfunction, for a new life of peace and purpose, hope and passion {Galatians 2:19-20: For when I tried to keep the law, it condemned me. So I died to the law-I stopped trying to meet all its requirements-so that I might live for God. My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me}.

Now, as an adult, it is easy to simply sit in the audience and watch the children’s Easter plays unfold. Yet, when I hear them singing, I remember that Jesus’ role includes even me. And I ask myself, How am I dying and being resurrected this Easter?