Pineridge Blog

Nothing and Everything

It is a busy time of year getting ready for Easter. There are extra services to plan and attend, devotions to read, prayers to be said, special songs to be sung not to mention eggs to die and meals to plan. There hardly seems time to take in or even process another brutal mass shooting. This time it was half a world away in mosques full of Friday worshipers.

What possibly could the most recent killings have to do with us this Easter?

Nothing and everything.

In one sense this is just another piece of news in a torrent of information swirling around us every day. Now this… now that…. We all have become good at giving selective attention to the things that really seem to matter to us at any given moment while letting the rest slip by half-noticed. It is hard to keep up with your brain, much less with your heart.

But in another very real sense to pause, to be horrified, angered, and grieved by the brutal killings is to remember why we celebrate Easter. The story we tell during this holy season is that Jesus came into this world, immersing himself in the full human experience; pain and all. He suffered discrimination and violence, but he suffered mostly for calling on people to see others, all others, as brothers and sisters.  He refused to accept dismissive labels for others like, “sinner.” 

Paul says to the Philippians, “He did not count equality with God as something to be exploited, but he humbled himself, taking the form of a slave,” serving all. The central symbol of this humble life is a cross, an instrument of torture and cruel death, which has become a symbol of God’s undying love.

It is still a Good Friday world. Lots of things happen that should not happen—senseless wars, mindless abuse, innocent killings. If the cross has nothing to say to the worst of human situations, then it has nothing to say at all of any importance. 

And yet the cross stands as a reminder that this is also an Easter world. Resurrection happens. God’s love will always and finally triumph over hate in all its forms. The cross reminds us that the ones who died last week in Christchurch, New Zealand, were also our brothers and sisters.