Holy Week Sequels, Part 2
Click here to read part 1 of this series.
So, what then? Is there more to say about the resurrection other than a tribute to it as a special day? This is the easiest interpretation. Everybody is dressed slightly better than normal, lambs and hams are roasting, extended family is in town - even my atheist friends go home to visit ma and pa's church and get their cheeks pinched.
The cheek pinching inspired this comparison of two culturally significant holidays: Easter and New Years.
- Resurrection of Jesus: Easter? Yes. New Years? No.
- Costumes: Easter? Yes. New Years? Yes.
- Special Food: Yes. Yes.
- Group Activity: Yes. Yes.
- Stores Closed: Yes, both on Easter and New Years.
- Special Round-ish Icon: Yes, Easter has the egg. New Years has the ball drop.
- Games for Kids: What is Easter without an egg hunt or New Years without trying to stay up until midnight?
Set aside the resurrection of Jesus, the part you can’t franchise, and Easter becomes one more special day of remembrance. Remembering what happened doesn’t hurt, but as the annual sequels stack up, and the time between the original and right now expands, the mystery of the resurrection becomes more likely to get franchised for easy distribution, commoditized for easy consumption, and layered with unnecessary rituals like Easter Eggs.
The sequel gets treated with special effects to make the scandal of a dead man rising palatable; the mystery reduced to a metaphor we now transport from one problem to another.
Is there anyone that’s still watching the original. It left the first witnesses running in terror and amazement (Mark 16:8). What are you doing after church on Sunday?
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Two blog posts on a single subject seems sufficient, right? I can't imagine stretching this sequel motif any further. *Click here to read part 1 of this series.*