When did Easter start?
Did it start in the garden, when a woman in fear and despair came to perform one last task for Jesus, to clean and anoint his body in death but instead found her Lord, calling her by name?
Did it start in the dawn on Sunday, as the sun began to rise, and light flood from the tomb that once held death but could not hold onto the life that pushes all the darkness away?
Or did it start on Friday? The day when Jesus was brutally nailed to the crossbeam, hauled up for all to see, and left hanging on the cross to die. The day when it seemed that death had won and hope died.
Or did Easter start on Thursday, at the table? That was the day when Jesus washed the feet of and broke bread with those who would doubt him, the one who would deny knowing him and the one who would betray him.
Or did Easter start earlier that week? Was it the day when Jesus rode into Jerusalem surrounded by a cheering crowd calling ‘hosanna’, waving palms in front of him and hailing him with psalms. Days later another crowd would cry out for him to be crucified.
Did Easter start many years before in a stable one night? When almighty God became incarnate as a baby. Did Easter start when God put aside divinity, rights, worth, and took upon himself humanity? Did Easter start as God became one of us?
Maybe even, Easter started long before that? Maybe Easter started in a garden after all. Maybe Easter started when mankind hid from God, and God called out to us, and searched for us? Maybe Easter started when God followed mankind into exile from the garden so that they would still have knowledge of him?
Easter is the climax of a story told since the beginning of the world. The story of God seeking to reconcile man to God and man to man. This is at the very centre of the gospel.
In the garden God called out to Adam. When Adam and Eve had to bear the consequences of their actions, God bore them also, and remained with them…otherwise how would their children recognise God’s voice and bring their own sacrifices. God did not leave them alone.
God does not leave us alone, to hide from God forever, covered with leaves of guilt and shame.
On the cross we see God, in Jesus, having embraced all our humanity, also embracing everything that makes us less than human. The cross is where God, in Jesus, embraced our lack of love – the essence of sin, and took all that onto himself. The cross is where God, in Jesus embraces us and calls us out of hiding.
The cross is a difficult place to stand. It reminds us of our own contribution to the cross. We stand aware of our own lack of love, our own betrayal of the way of Jesus, our own darkness. It reminds us of why we want hide.
There is reason we often want to rush from Friday morning to Easter Sunday. The cross and the grave are not easy places to be. They are not meant to be. It is easier to see the stars against a dark night sky. We need the darkness to see the light. We need to pause and to wait for Sunday morning, not in fear and trembling, but remembering that we are called out of hiding by name, by one who embraced all our darkness.
And as we wait, our eyes adjust to the darkness, and we begin to see the light.
And the Easter story, started in a garden, continues.