Covenant News
Devotional: Butterflies, Bunnies and a Loose Body
CHICAGO, IL (April 7, 2004) - Covenant Communications occasionally publishes online devotionals, gleaned from the more than 250 local church newsletters received each month and used with permission of the writers. The following devotional comes from Arthur Nelson, interim pastor at Northwest Covenant Church in Mount Prospect, Illinois, and retired senior pastor of North Park Covenant Church in Chicago.By Arthur Nelson
When Easter comes late in the calendar, as it does this year, it is easy to relish daffodils and butterflies and bunnies, which are more than metaphors for warmth, light and renewal. The air carries fragrance sprayed by spring rain and parks are carpeted with green again.
Wonderful as all of this is, Easter is really about a body that got loose. It's about a dead Jesus, horribly crucified, who came back to back up all those things He promised, and maybe to even harass us a little. What we have is Jesus, whom God set free after all the things He said and did that put Him on a cross. Things like those disturbing stories about the rich man and Lazarus at the gate; about the man who built bigger barns - security annuities - only to die in the night without having kissed his children.
He said nothing about safe sex, spoke of compassion and gave everyone he met a second chance. He said that we were to absolutely and without equivocation believe in God and in God's wild, wild love for us, and that we count far more than the sparrow that falls to the ground. And the clincher for which he was killed by culture: he actually DID those things. Fed the poor, took time with friends, hugged children, had little patience with hypocrites, religious or otherwise.
He was counter cultural right. His choices, His values - you can see that culture could do nothing but pin Him to a cross. This radical Jesus God raised, set free and IF He is followed, WHEN he is followed, is up to mischief. For Jesus is still about decisions we make at work and school, whistle-blowing ethics, faithfulness and truth, about making relationships work. In essence, he is about life here and hereafter, about real joy and fulfillment.
Jesus is radical and counter cultural . . . and risen! He's a body got loose. He has nothing against caterpillars, eggs and butterflies; they belong to Hallmark. He's looking for a few good radicals. They belong to Him.
Printable version of this page.