Song of Solomon 2
“11 See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone.
12 Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land.
13 The fig tree forms its early fruit; the blossoming vines spread their fragrance.
Arise, come, my darling; my beautiful one, come with me.”
There’s just something about Spring, isn’t there? I walk around and marvel at how God changes everything in a few short weeks. I find myself walking around the garden and the forest to see what’s happening and when I see buds opening and green shoots pushing forth I go a little 'crazy.' But not as crazy as Galanthophiles. These odd creatures (and you may be one yourself) live for seeing the first snowdrop of the season. You can picture a car load of elderly women and men driving around Sussex in a little Mr. Bean car peering out of the windows and yelling “I say, there’s one!” and screeching the tires so that they can all surround the little white bloom and rejoice. I totally get this.
I have dear friends that live in Mexico as snowbirds and I visited them this winter to enjoy heat and madly blooming flowers. It was great and I yearned to live there. When I got home there was snow on the ground and my heart was heavy. I felt like I visiting a cemetery after tasting the nectar of the angels in Mexico.
But then I reflected. Why is it that I love the Spring so much? Isn’t it exactly because I have traversed through a long period of cold and death during Winter? Spring is that Joy that says that things are getting nice again.
I’d like to tell you a pagan myth because it’s a good one. It’s how the Greeks explained the seasons. See, once upon a time, it was always spring and summer and never winter. Kind of like Mexico, you know? The goddess in charge of all growing plants was called Demeter and she had a lovely daughter named Persephone.
Persephone had the great misfortune to be so beautiful that the god of the Underworld, Hades, fell in love with her. Hades was a forceful chap who thought nothing of stealing the maiden and bringing her to his kingdom where she could rule with him. Poor Persephone! Stuck in the Underworld where everything was dark and monochromatic. She wasted away.
You can imagine the effect that this abduction had on Demeter. She went into a prolonged period of depression and as she went, so did the gardens of Greece. All of the plants died and turned into bleak sticks. Farmers are natural stoics but let’s face it, they can only take so much. Month followed month of nothing but death with no hope for life. All winter with no Christmas!
Finally all of the lamentation reached the ears of Zeus. He called his brother, Hades on the carpet and told him that he must release Persephone so that Demeter would stop her mourning. Hades was not terribly happy about this but hey Zeus is Zeus. Hades let her go and Persephone returned to her mother who was overjoyed. Spring came in a tidal wave of green shoots and buds and blossoms.
Happy story, eh? Sadly no; while Demeter was in Hade’s kingdom she ate a fruit. This fruit meant that she would have to return to Hades for a time every year and live with him. Her sojourn in the Underworld meant that every year, Demeter’s mourning would again affect human hearts and it would be winter. But after her temporary stay each year, Persephone would be released and all of mankind would rejoice again. It’s bittersweet at best.
Now listen to the Easter story.
Our mother and father chose to eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and ever since, we have been cursed with a distance between us and our loving Father. We were created to bloom in a garden but through our lack of contentment we were consigned to a life pulling thorns from our feet and ticks form our skin, a life of sickness, failure and decay.
God is just but He is also a mother who keens for her offspring, who yearns for her rebellious children. How could he satisfy both his justice and his heart? One perfect morning, he saw his beloved son approach his throne.
“What’s the matter, Father?” asks Jesus.
“It’s my children, my lost, confused, rebellious children,” responds his Father. “My heart will ache until I can hold them close to me, knowing that they are wholly mine.”
“Let me go to them Abba,” says Jesus. “Let me join their hearts back to yours. Let me take their sins and enmity on my own back and die for them all.”
“O my precious Son,” says the Father, tears in his eyes. “Let it be as you say.”
Jesus does the unthinkable. He reduces himself to the size of a pinpoint and develops in Mary’s womb. Do you hear that? That’s the sound of angels gasping in amazement.
Jesus grows up, experiencing every symptom of the fall of man. He learns what pain feels like, psychic, and physical. He is cold, sweats, breaks wind and knows hunger. But he doesn’t sin. Oh he is tempted alright but will not break faith with his father. He knows who he is and what he is made for. In the temple he quotes a Scripture, he reads:
1 The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,
because the LORD has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners,[a]
2 to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor
and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,
3 and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
instead of ashes,
the oil of joy
instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair(Isaiah 61)
One bitter day, this lover is lead to his death, an agony of blood, spit and tears on a rude brown cross. He feels such anguish that he cries out “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani”. “My God, my God why have you forsaken me?”
But the story doesn’t end there. Oh my no. He is laid down in a cave and a boulder is put in front of the entrance so that dogs won’t drag out and devour the body.
Women come by two days later to put spices on the body so that it will not stink so much as it rots. Imagine their surprise when they are met by an angel who says, “Why are you looking for a dead man here?” As if finding a corpse in a graveyard was folly itself!
For, you see, Jesus who had died was dead no more. Later he greeted his disciples in his straightforward way. “Hey Thomas, you doubt my resurrection? Here are my wounds, why don’t you put your fingers in? Hey Peter, you betrayed me? Well, how about now, do you love me? You do? Feed my sheep! Hey who’s hungry? I brought some fish for you all.”
Jesus stayed for a while and then left for Heaven where he sits at God’s right hand, praying for me and you.
According to the Greeks, you can’t resist the death of winter. You have to just buckle down and take it.
But God has a better story. He dies to banish death forever. Oh sure, we will shuck off these bodies some day. But a seed doesn’t die for nothing. Look! The brown shell is splitting and a green shoot is poking out. Look, that caterpillar is heading into his cocoon to die. But that’s not the end of the story is it? One morning that cocoon is going to split and a creature of surpassing beauty will fly out.
Don’t you know that we are being shaped for eternity? Our frail, chunky bodies are not enough for forever. We need something more, something new. Listen to John’s Revelation:
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
(Revelation 21)
This is our story!
I asked the Father what he likes about Easter and this is what he said:
I like the fact that I used the devil’s weapon against him.
I countered cruelty with kindness
Pain with release
Darkness with light
And death with life everlasting.
It’s true: God used devilish weapons to achieve his glorious grace. Consider the Cross: it is the electric chair of its day, the capital punishment of the Roman Empire. Consider the Pharisees and Chief priests, they were masters of keeping public order and accommodation with the Empire. Consider Pilate, it was more important to him to satisfy the religious leaders than to do the right thing. He washed his hands of Jesus. God used all of these to save us.
What should our response be?
Let us overcome evil with good even as Jesus did. Let us be light in darkness. Let us disarm cruelty with kindness. Let us be unwilling to accept evil when we can do good.
Thanks for writing this.
Posted by: kait | April 26, 2011 at 04:17 PM