Easter is a wonderful holiday. As a kid I remember the excitement I felt when my Sunday School class would finish its lesson on the Resurrection and head outside for the church’s Easter egg hunt. To quote another little boy, “Chocolate eggs and Jesus risen!” Not a bad combination by any stretch.
But as we slowly approach the Easter season all Christians should be reminded that, Biblically speaking, the road to Easter inevitably passes under the shadow of the Cross. It is precisely this awareness that has kept the high holy day of the Christian calendar really part of a set, a matching set even: a parity in which the riotous joy of Easter is placed in relationship with the far more sobering sentiments of Good Friday. For how can Jesus rise from death without first descending into it? And how can the people of God rightfully celebrate the enormity of Jesus’ victory unless we first take full stock of the enormity of His opponents: namely sin, Satan, and finally, death itself.
As we move towards Easter let’s remember to meditate not only upon the glorious end of that story but also its darksome penultimate points. Let us allow our eyes to adjust to the fearsome twilight of Calvary that when the awesome dawn of the empty tomb flashes upon us it might seem all the brighter for it.