Easter Meditation for My Students
What does Easter mean to you? Since you’re all scholarly students, I know you know it’s more than chocolate bunnies and Easter eggs (as fun as those are!). But how important is this holiday (from “holy day”) in your life? Or in the rhythm of your year? Compared to Christmas, I think Easter might get second place, but what about the 4th of July? Our lives will be shaped by a calendar–it’s just a question of which one. Is the American civil calendar most important, or is the historic Christian calendar? For the early Christians, Easter was the most important time of the year. Christmas became popular later in the Medieval period. Both are important, and both changed history forever. Christmas celebrates the Son of God entering history to live a perfect life and show us what it means to be truly human. But as many have pointed out, the Son of God was born to die. Christmas points forward to Easter, and we need to celebrate both.
Easter is about dying. Easter is about planting seeds. Christ was buried in the ground, but he rose full of resurrection life. Through union with him, the seed of eternal life is sown in our lives. It will bloom in new heavens and new earth. Education is also planting seeds. You’ve “died” many times during this school year already. All those late nights, slogging through endless piles of homework–I know that was painful. But you were also planting seeds for the future. How will you be “raised”?
A narrow education trains people for specific jobs or tasks. Here, we follow the “classical Christian” model, which focuses on training the student to be a particular type of person. We want you to be able to think outside the box. To ask intelligent questions. To be able to express yourself gracefully, and forcefully, and to be able to diffuse tense situations with humor. We want to give you the “tools of learning” so that you can continue to learn throughout your lives. Many of you will work at jobs that haven’t even been invented yet! You’ll need wisdom to navigate the brave new world of AI. You’ll need the faith and endurance of the martyrs to withstand the persecutions that will most likely come.
Christ’s death, and his joyful expectation that his Father would ultimately deliver him and vindicate him, gives us an example to follow in the many small “deaths” that we die every day (check out John 12:23-26). You are planting valuable seeds every day in your studies, in your jobs, in how you serve your parents and in how you take care of your toddler brother who just destroyed your science project. Through God’s grace, these seeds will sprout, take root, and bloom into a glorious harvest that none of us can even begin to imagine right now. So, plant one seed at a time. Die to yourself daily (Luke 9:23). Pull out the weeds in your lives, and make sure you get them by their deep, gnarly, roots. Let the rain of God’s grace water them, and pray to the Lord of the harvest.
You may not know this, but we (your teachers) love you. We really do. It might seem like we just invent new ways to torture you every week, but we see the strong Oak or Sycamore that you will one day be in God’s Garden (even though you might feel like a tumbleweed right now). So, take heart. Follow in the footsteps of your crucified King. Learn to die well, and walk in the power of his resurrection every day, as He gives us strength!
Just a Pagan Myth?
Several years ago, I published the first articles I got paid for. It was a wonderful feeling, and I’m thankful for the good folks at Intellectual Takeout for giving me the opportunity. Here’s one on Easter and the idea that the stories about Jesus’ resurrection are just influences from pagan mythology. I hope it’s encouraging to you in this Holy Week!
Gregory Soderberg Ph.D., teaches and mentors students of all ages at Kepler Education, the BibleMesh Institute, and Redemption Seminary. He writes at gregorysoderberg.substack.com.
