The Even Bigger Picture

I love Easter. I love the whole season, from start to finish, including Lent. I sing Easter songs year round. I make pancakes on Shrove Tuesday, and I give something up. The forty days fly by, and then surprise - it's Holy Week - time for lots of beautiful services, and here in Spain, emotive processions of Jesus and various virgins through the streets.

I like bleak Maundy Thursday services, and I love community brunch at the Lion's Club on Good Friday.  It's time for card-sending, flowering the cross, hot cross bun making, and family meals. Time for lots of rituals that center around the man on the cross, and then it's over until Christmas, when it all begins again.

 

Take a look at this picture. Seems like a pretty good summary of what the season's all about, right?

 

He was born in a manger, amazed his teachers with his knowledge, became a radical teacher himself, and ended up being crucified. It's a dramatic end to a dramatic story. 

 

Jesus was crucified. The statue tells that much, but the main point here is not the crucifixion. Look again, at the fine print:

future plan

In a lovely coincidence, a museum restoration project tells us it doesn't end with the cross -there's still more to come, and it's the best and most amazing part: Jesus died, and then on the third day he rose again, for you, for me.

So it's not just a statue of Jesus on the cross. It's one Son freely given so that all would have life. Looking at the bigger picture it becomes clear. What we're looking at here? It's love.