Lynn Jones: The Easter Story is a Call to Faith
By Lynn Jones
We have a curious occurrence on our calendar this year. Sunday is Easter, and the next day is April Fool’s Day.
Easter is the day when we celebrate the greatest truth ever declared to mankind, “He is risen.” But one day later comes a day when more untruth is spoken than on almost any other day. It is April Fool’s Day.
On that first Easter Sunday, you see the same closeness and contrast of these two things. When the women saw the empty tomb and heard the angel tell them that Christ was risen, they immediately ran to tell Jesus’ disciples what they had seen and heard. When the disciples heard what these women had to say about an empty tomb and a resurrection, “They did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense” (Luke 24:11). Or, their words seemed like “foolishness,” the statements of fools.
But this was no April Fool’s joke. It was the declaration of a truth so immense and profound that it seemed unbelievable. It was hard for them to wrap their heads around it.
Later that day, when two followers of Jesus were walking back to their hometown of Emmaus, Jesus came to walk with them, but they did not recognize Him. When Jesus asked them what they had been talking about, they proceeded to tell Jesus about the stories making the rounds of the city of Jerusalem that morning. They were stories about Jesus’ rising from the grave, but they were not sure whether to believe them. Jesus said to two men, “How foolish you are, and how slow of heart you are to believe” (Luke 24: 25). The stories were not foolish, but these reluctant believers’ reactions to the stories were foolish.
The resurrection of Jesus is an astounding fact. It is a truth so grand that it is hard for us to comprehend, but we cannot dismiss it as foolishness. We must embrace it with faith.
I am grateful that Jesus did not give up on those first disciples, and He does not give up on us when our faith is weak and faltering. Just as He worked with those struggling disciples to help them believe in Him and His resurrection, He works with us with infinite patience and love. He doesn’t give up on us.
In watching the March Madness basketball games this week, we have seen some exciting comebacks, Teams that seemed destined for defeat came back to win exciting victories. But there has never been a comeback story as exciting as the one Jesus wrote on that first Easter morning as He rose from the grave and demonstrated His power of death.
Sunday is Easter, and Monday is April Fool’s Day. Those first disciples ultimately did not dismiss the story of the resurrection as foolishness, but they embraced it by faith. So should we!
Lynn Jones is a retired pastor who lives in Oxford. He does supply preaching for churches in his area and often serves as an interim pastor. Jones is also an author, has written two books and writes a weekly newspaper column. He may be contacted at: kljones45@yahoo.com.
