This week changes everything
Mark Twain was giving a speech one day in which he recalled an incident from his childhood.
He said, “When I was a boy, I was walking along a street and happened to spy a cart full of watermelons. I was very fond of watermelon, so I sneaked quietly on the cart and snitched one. Then I ran into a nearby alley and sank my teeth into the melon. No sooner had I done so, however, than a strange feeling came over me. Without a moment’s hesitation I made my decision. I walked back to the cart, replaced the melon and took a ripe one.”
Some of you, I hope most of you, assumed he was going to say he went back because the strange feeling was guilt and he needed to make it right. You assumed that because you have a certain filter that governs your life, a filter called honesty.
We all have filters. Tell your teenage son or daughter to make their bed and they’ll look at you strangely and say, “Why? I’m going to sleep in it again tonight.” They have one filter, you have another.
People ask me why I wash my Jeep when it’s raining. Their filter tells them it’s a waste of time. My slightly OCD-tainted-filter gives me the joy of knowing my vehicle is clean at least for a brief time.
Incidentally, I do not have OCD. I have CDO, which is OCD put in alphabetical order.
The truth beneath all this is the significance of the filters or lenses through which we all view life. Every aspect of every experience is colored by the lens through which we see and interpret it which is why this week is so important for those of us who embrace the Christian faith.
The essential and core elements of Christianity are on full display this week. On Good Friday we soberly recall that Jesus Christ, who we believe to be the Son of God, willingly gave his life on our behalf, as settlement for our sins.
Viewing life through the lens of the crucifixion on Good Friday means that the account for anything wrong we have ever done has been “paid in full.”
We do not need to cover it up, run from it or cower in fear that it will be found out. It’s been paid in full. The lens of forgiveness and freedom provided by Good Friday has enormous implications for every day of our lives.
Incredibly, Friday wasn’t the end. The best was still to come. Easter Sunday is a celebration of the greatest miracle ever. The core belief of the Christian faith that God raised His Son from the dead is the ultimate declaration that God is never ultimately defeated. Even though we continue to live in a very broken world, He is present with us, He engages with us and He will ultimately have the last word.
The core beliefs declared this week do not answer all questions nor do they erase all pain and suffering. They do, however, provide a filter which colors how we live in the current reality.
It’s a filter of hope, of peace and of a way of life which calls us to the highest standard of love. It is in fact quite a week, and it changes pretty much everything!
Tim Schroeder is pastor at Trinity Baptist Church in Kelowna. This column appears weekly in Okanagan Weekend.