THE THREE PERSONS OF EASTER [Easter Sunday, 4-20-25]

CHRIST IN WINTER: Reflections on Faith & Life for the Years of Winter—THE THREE PERSONS OF EASTER [Easter Sunday, 4-20-25]

 

The only thing I know for sure about Easter is… He lives!

Easter always makes me think of three people: Jesus, Jane Jenkins, and Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy.

Jesus was the Christ, who got resurrected. Jane was the church Lay Leader, who didn’t believe it. Eugen was the theologian, who taught Jane where to start believing.

Jane was perhaps the best church member I have ever known. She totally lived the total faith. Except for believing in the resurrection. She told me that one Easter morning. “I just can’t believe in the resurrection.”

My first thought, as always, was self-centered. “I’ve been her preacher for lo, these many Easters, and she hasn’t listened to me.”

Well, no, she had listened, listened well. But she heard Easter sermons that started in the wrong place.

Eugen taught me that. I only regret that I did not meet him, through his writings, until so late in my preaching life

Resurrection means that death is not the end, but the beginning. We don’t start with Christmas, we start with Easter. The cross is not the start of death but the start of life. We understand life only by starting at the end. We understand backwards. We don’t start with “once upon a time.” We start with “they lived happily ever after.”

The only thing I know for sure about Easter is… He lives!

John Robert McFarland