He is risen!

Did you know that the word Easter comes from the name of a pagan goddess of fertility, spring, and the sun? I think that’s great. Though Jesus didn’t name the holiday, he did occasion it, and it’s just like him to take something old and dead and make it new, give it new meaning and life. How fitting that the old gods should be pressed into the service of our High and True God. Easter is an allegory, a paradigm, an archetype. Every time you say the name, you should be reminded that Jesus takes old idolatries and redeems them, transforms them, takes the sin out of them and makes them fit for his service. He takes old enemies and makes them servants; more, he makes them friends, heirs, children. History is an anecdote in the great proclamation of the glory of his love. The water of this baptism turns lead into gold, pagan temples into sanctuaries, sinners into saints. The sun whose rising in former times was the mark of a god now marks the rising of God. Happy Easter.

He is risen indeed!