by Rev. Ellen Debenport
The long-told story of Jesus’ crucifixion, entombment, and resurrection is the story of our lives. We resonate with its loss, darkness, and new life because we cycle through the same process time and again in our human lifetimes.
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We all experience deaths—deaths of loved ones, of hope, of plans; deaths of life as we know it when everything changes; deaths of jobs, of relationships, of what is familiar. Sometimes we experience a public crucifixion that feels as if everyone is watching and jeering—bankruptcy, divorce, arrest.
Although Lent can be observed as a period of letting go and releasing what no longer serves us, sometimes we don’t seem to have a choice about what we must release.
Seeking the Light of a New Day
Many crucifixions—these metaphorical deaths—are so painful that we find ourselves in a tomb afterward. Our lives are in limbo. We must recover and regroup. This is the Saturday experience of Jesus’ mother and disciples. When their beloved leader was killed as a common criminal, their hope was lost and everything they believed was thrown into doubt. What a terrible period of grief it must have been.
But there is always a resurrection. That’s the message of Easter for us. Nothing stays dark forever. A new day always dawns. We are given new beginnings and fresh starts. The sun comes up again. There is nothing so painful in our lives that it can’t be redeemed for good somehow, and that is our prayer from the tomb: “Show me the good.” Then we can start to create a new day.
Through the cycles of your life, the Easter story’s events and characters might speak to you differently in different years:
Some years you might be in the Garden of Gethsemane, dreading what you fear is about to happen, wondering whether you have the courage to let go of life as you know it for the promise of resurrection.
Some years you might be experiencing a crucifixion—in pain, asking why God seems to have forsaken you.
Some years you might identify with Jesus’ grieving mother and his friends after their great loss.
Some years you might be in a tomb, waiting and trusting that something lies beyond this darkness.
Some years you might be exhilarated by the promise of resurrection, of lifting yourself into new life.
Some years you might know the joy of the women who discovered the tomb was empty, realizing a situation is not as bad as you feared.
Some years—every year—Easter can remind you of your own divinity and what your spiritual nature means for your life. Each year, you can ask: What does the Easter story tell me about myself as an expression of God in human form?
Embracing the Gift of Eternal Life
Among its beautiful lessons, the Easter story reveals that death is not the end; it is only a physical event. It happens to our bodies and within our human circumstances, but it cannot touch our spirits, the eternal essence of God that we are. Death in its many forms—the people, places, things, thoughts, and habits we must let go—is not to be feared because we cannot die.
Life is eternal, far beyond this physical existence. In the Unity tradition, resurrection is Jesus’ final teaching for us. The risen Jesus tells us, There’s so much more to life than you have realized.
It puts divinity within our grasp. It reminds us that everything Jesus was, we are and more, just as he said. It lets us know we can survive anything—literally any
thing—because we will always keep living in one form or another. We are the energy of life because we are part of the one eternal presence and power in the universe.
That’s a pretty spectacular message any way you look at it, wherever you are in the cycle of death, tomb, and resurrection. We celebrate our divine, eternal selves this Easter.
