30 Mar 2021 When Easter is nowhere

By Donald Brazile

The full force of Easter is nearing — arriving this year on the first Sunday of this month. Where does it find you? We often find ourselves buried under the weight of information and images and sounds, causing our senses to dull, leaving our dreams destroyed, our hopes dashed, and our spirits crushed. It seems Easter gets buried under all of this and we often miss it.

 What do you do when Easter is nowhere?

 I think the answer might be found in the word nowhere. Take the same seven letters n–o–w–h–e–r–e, keep the same order. Make one little change. Place a space between the “w” and the “h” and you get “now here.” Easter is NOW HERE. The Resurrected One is always now here: always with us, always going before us, leading us, always teaching us, and always delivering us.

I can hear some of you honestly responding with, “But I don’t believe the Easter story.” I completely understand. The water is deep here, but only because we must wade around in the shadows of human understanding. The resurrection, by its very nature, defies all human constructs, no matter how well it’s thought out. I can’t explain it, and I am sufficiently wise not to try. But maybe this will help — you don’t explain love—you embrace it! You don’t prove power — you experience it! You don’t prove life — you live it! In the same manner, you can’t explain Easter, you experience, enjoy and wonder at it. Simply accept that Easter is — and receive it.

It has been said that if Robert Browning were to come into your life, you could write poetry; if Shakespeare were to come in, glorious dramas would fall from your pen; if Napoleon were to take possession, you could see how campaigns should be planned and how strategy should be mapped. But if the story of Easter were given central place in your life, you would experience the unfathomable expression of God’s love extended to you through the resurrection of Christ.

 If you look at a map of the Pacific, you’ll discover a small speck called Easter Island. It was named on Easter day in 1722 by a Dutch navigator. Because of its name, many people pay a short visit to it once a year on Easter. It is something of a novel experience. After spending the day on the island, they climb aboard their boats and go back to the mainland. The visit to Easter is over. But Easter isn’t just an island in the Pacific or a day to be visited, and there’s much more to it than dressing up and going to brunch once a year.

If you’re looking for a deeper Easter experience, then consider going to church this Easter Sunday. Open your doubting, questioning heart to the miracle of Easter for the first time or maybe for the one–hundredth time, and, in that moment, you’ll realize it’s not just another boring, overrated day. What has been buried will come to the surface, and out of that place we know as “nowhere,” you’ll suddenly realize that Easter is now here.