Forty days is the preparation time for Easter. For forty days the colour is purple and it is the time of repentance. For many it is the time of abstinence. For forty days we have followed Jesus and deeper and deeper He came into the shadow of the cross.

Nevertheless these forty days were no gloomy days. Not forty days without joy. We already knew of Easter. Especially on Palm Sunday this filtered through. All the time we knew that the light had to be broken in order to be able to break into this world. The broken light, which is the broken body of Christ.

Body of Christ
Early in the morning of the third day the Lord rose from the tomb and from death. We already knew of Easter, every Sunday we know of it. But now we celebrate it. The light which has been broken breaks into the world. The body which was broken has been glorified. The broken body becomes a body in which people are incorporated. John gives a hint when he writes that the bones of Jesus were not broken. He writes this after Jesus had died. This body was not ‘cleared away’. It was intended for glorification. It was intended to become body for people to be incorporated into. Body of Christ….

Damaged
There are moments when you think: the body has been destroyed. The body of Christ is too heavily damaged. It has been violated. Members have been violated. The time has come to break it up. There is every reason for it. The past weeks we have heard the stories. Of victims. Of perpetrators. No Easter-stories, but demolition-stories. They have shocked and saddened us. Because of the victims. About the perpetrators. How often the body of Christ is being violated. By faithlessness from within. But also by acts of violence from the outside. We think of our sisters and brothers who are hard pressed. We think of Christians in Iraq.

Time to rise up
Nevertheless we celebrate Easter. Because the body of Christ is a resurrection-body. His life breaks through anyway. ‘The bones were not broken’. We celebrate Easter again. It is indestructible. Jesus Christ is alive and we may live with Him. Even if it does not occur to us, or don’t feel like it, it is offered to us. The colour is white. Again we hear the voice of the Gardener. He calls us by name. Then it is time to rise up.

April 3rd 2010 – Dr. Arjan Plaisier, secretary of the general synod of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands.