This Easter was a special one. Before we go on I must first qualify to say that this is an entry on Christianity. So for those who aren’t Christians I wish for this little anecdote to touch you all the same.
It wasn’t easy explaining to a four year-old how God became man and did nothing when the people he came to save ended up hanging him on a cross. On Good Friday we told Joel that Christ died and would live again on Easter Sunday. We told him that every Easter we remember this magnificent deed that God did for us.
He took it all in ponderously and didn’t probe any further after that. Sunday came and we went to church. Joel, in his bubbly self, went stomping away on the pews and striking up a solo-performance of some theatrical drama he concocted in his head, until I told him the song everyone’s singing now was about Christ coming back to life after being hung on the cross. It kindled something in him like a spark.
“Jesus died?” he asked.
“Yup, that’s what we told you on Good Friday.”
“He hang on the cross and died?” his eyes widened.
“Yes,” I said. “He died but now he lives.”
“Oh.”
That was it. That was all it took to sedate him that Sunday, when otherwise it would’ve taken me a couple of elephant-grade tranquilizer darts. So he went to Sunday school as usual and we came home, had dinner, hang out a little in front of the telly and got Joel and Amos ready for bed just as if it were any other Sunday.
Then it happened.
Routinely we asked Joel what bedtime story book he’d like us to read. To our surprise he requested for the Bible – the kiddy one. He remembered the story of Easter and asked for it to be read to him. Sandra did the reading, and when it was done Joel fell unusually silent. And then the inevitable came.
“How did Jesus die?” asked Joel.
“Bad people hung him on the cross.”
“Got blood?” Joel probed. He sort of drew the association that there was to be bleeding.
“Yes, Jesus shed his blood for us.”
Joel dug deeper. “Why got blood?”
“Well…Jesus was hung on the cross.”
Joel thrust out his neck. “How? Why got blood?”
“Well…he was erm…nailed to it.”
“Nailed?”
“Yes, nailed.” The motion of jabbing a finger into one’s palm accompanied the explanation.
Silence. You could almost see the CPU indicator light flashing away in Joel’s head as he tried to process the understandably horrific revelation.
A moment later he looked up and said, “So it’s painful?”
“I think it is.”
“So Jesus is very painful?”
“Yes, he was.”
He drew a vacant look. The silence returned and hung about him like a gloomy pall. Tears glazed over his eyes and he started burrowing into a heap of cushions to hide them. We were shocked and touched all at once, and before we could recover from it Joel proclaimed, with the untainted innocence only a child possessed, “I love Jesus.”
Then he broke a smile and added, “I am happy he is alive.”
The first thing I felt was the loss of an infinitely precious thing that even Christ Himself spoke about – childlikeness. It doesn’t imply blind trustfulness or naivety, but an uncluttered, receptive mind that readily recognizes and accepts the love of God.
Christ died for our sins. He got nailed to the cross and hung by His flesh for hours and let Death take Him slowly. And He did it all so we wouldn’t have to be condemned for what we’ve have become. Then He came back to life and conquered Death.
Yeah…we say. That’s a good story. It’s real and I believe in it, just as I believe an account in a history book. And the very Cornerstone of our faith is left that way – as a mere backdrop in our lives that no longer touches us the way it used to.
But this little anecdote demonstrated to me, first-hand, how a child saw far beyond this.
Joel wept for Jesus and I grieved over the passionless, lukewarm grown-up I’ve become.
So what happened along the way?
Perhaps it’s time we become kids again.
"People were bringing little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, 'Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these…'” Mark 10:13-14
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