Reflections on a Resurrectionless Easter
Published on March 18th, 2008.
Two days ago I posted a letter from First Look, a publisher of children’s curriculum in which the publisher explained why the crucifixion and the resurrection were left out of this years preschool Bible curriculum. There are many amazing lines in this letter. For those who use the curriculum for children ages five and above there is provided an “alternative ending” to the Bible story that includes the resurrection. However, this “alternative ending” is not “sensitive to the physical, intellectual and emotional development of preschoolers.” Nothing could be father from any remotely faithful conception of Biblical reality.
Let’s camp out on those three words “physical, intellectual and emotional” as we consider the significance of the crucifixion and resurrection.
I thought the inclusion of the “physical” in this statement was interesting. How might these writers explain how the resurrection is harmful to a child’s physical development? I can imagine what they might say about the intellectual and emotional development of a child, but not the physical. However, in reality, the physical is actually the great concern of the cross and the resurrection. Through Jesus’ cross work and resurrection, God affirmed the essential goodness of physical reality. We were made as humans and we will always be humans. The Father did not send Jesus to save us to any other form of existence but that of a physical human existence. Even now, Jesus, the God-man, occupies a physical human body. The resurrection dignifies the body along with everything we do in and with our body.
The impact of the resurrection on the intellectual aspect of children is also significant. Certainly, we cannot expect children to process the resurrection with all of its significance upon first hearing. But for children growing up with the Bible, the idea that “Jesus wants to be my friend forever” cannot make sense unless Jesus is still alive to be friends with. How that can be possible immediately raises questions that curious children are bound to ask. If Jesus was a human and he wants to be my friend forever, is he still alive? If he is still alive, where is he now? How did he get there? Did he ever die? The idea of springing the death and resurrection on children at the age of five when they have known about Jesus for as long as they can remember is, well, intellectually dishonest.
In terms of the emotional impact of the resurrection on children under five, I suppose the writers might say that the idea of a torturous death is just too much for a young child to handle. Fair enough. But when should any of us expect for the idea of the torturous death of the incarnate God to loose its gruesome weight? It is precisely the craziness of the event of the crucifixion that magnifies the extent of our sin and the extent of God’s love for his own glory in the saving of sinners. By the grace of God, our children will never emotionally handle the crucifixion but will be moved to tears for the gravity of their sin and joy for the greatness of God’s grace.
In addition, the crucifixion and resurrection condition the emotions as the great moral equalizers of the human heart. When the New Testament provides a command to love, it does not appeal to Jesus’ commitment to “share a meal and spend time with the people he loved.” Rather, the New Testament commands us to “walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us.” When the New Testament commands believers to forgive, they are commanded to forgive “as the Lord has forgiven you.”
So, we might say, the cross and the resurrection are the only solution to the physical, intellectual and emotional needs of all human persons, children not excluded. Though children under the age of five might not be expected to fully comprehend the nature of what took place in Jesus’ death and resurrection, to deny children the cross and resurrection in these younger years, precisely because they are in development, can and will effect how they conceive of the world and the resurrected Christ.
The first words of two believing parents two their children should be, “Jesus died for your sins and was raised from the dead.” They have the rest of their lives to grow in the knowledge of the significance of those words.
Filled under Miscellany.
2 Comments
Reflections For The Holy Weekend | Said at Southern Seminary on March 25th, 2008
[...] reflects on a resurrectionless easter. [...]
Ben C. on March 19th, 2008
Great reflection Trent. It’s easy to just be outraged and condem people for doing something like this, but to go through it rationally and Biblically and present a counter point is awesome. Keep up the good work.