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Real Answers™
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Copyright: © 2008 Greg Asimakoupoulos
700 words

AND THE FATHER LAUGHED!

By: Greg Asimakoupoulos

Several years ago while planning my spring preaching schedule, I noticed that Good Friday fell on April Fool’s Day. My initial reaction was “You’ve got to be kidding! How inappropriate. The most somber day of the church year overlapping a day for practical jokes? No way!”

But the more I thought about it, the less paradoxical it seemed. This unexpected double billing was not inappropriate at all. When you piece together the puzzle of Christ’s passion, the relationship between Good Friday and April Fool’s Day becomes recognizable. On that eventful weekend so long ago, it was God who seized the opportunity and played the ultimate practical joke on the enemy of our souls. Just rehearse that familiar Holy Week script in your mind.

Thursday blurred into Friday for Jesus.
A Seder supper with his closest friends in a second-story room.
A walk with his followers to a familiar olive grove
punctuated by singing and conversation.
A lonely time of gut-wrenching prayer.
A care-less kiss.
A crowd with clubs.
Jeers!
Cheers!
Fearing for their lives,
his disciples flee
except for one who lingers nearby
(but then lies about being a friend).

A rooster crows.
A “chicken” cries
as his eyes meet those of the one denied.
Jesus’ bloodshot eyes betray his sleepless night.
His bleeding back offers evidence of another betrayal;
The miscarriage of justice by a trumped-up jury.
They parade him before Pilate.
They spit on him and laugh.
“So you claim to be a king?”
“That’s treason!”
“That’s reason enough to rob you of your life!”

But a king needs a crown.
So a thorny branch is braided into a clumsy wreath.
The one who crushes it down on Jesus’ head pricks his hand.
Blood spurts out from both.
One wipes his hand.
The other writhes in pain.
A king needs a throne.
They choose an upright wooden one.
“Enthrone him well!”
“Fasten him securely! Spikes will do just fine.”
“Now hoist him high so he can see the sea of subjects
which surround him!”
His enemies watch him suffer.
‘Neath a midday sun, Jesus shivers.
Jeers!
An eclipse
An earthquake.
And finally,
death.
Cheers!
The enemy had won.
With Jesus dead, so were all his boasts of “kingdom come.”
God had failed to save his Son from Satan’s carefully crafted plot.

But Friday was only the beginning of the Father’s weekend scheme. The dancing demons and devilish laughter at Satan’s victory party didn’t bother God. He knew that the ones who boast of Friday’s fun are April fools indeed. As C. S. Lewis suggests in his classic tale The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, there is a deeper magic more powerful than the black magic of Good Friday.

I’m sure God grieved along with the eleven locked in that lonely room. It had been an upper room the night before. It was now a downer the morning after. No doubt he also winced as Pilate pondered the invisible stain on his hands no basin of water could wash clean. I’m sure God wept with the women who gathered flowers and incense to take to the tomb of their beloved teacher. But both Friday night and Saturday, while many joked and a few cried, God knew what Sunday morning would bring. Undaunted at being underrated by those who thought they knew, the Creator took his front row seat and waited for the sunrise.

And what a sunrise it was. On Sunday morning the angels danced. The disciples too. But not the Father. His response was much more vocal. All creation held its breath as the Father laughed. His side-splitting guffaw dwarfed the Devil’s premature chuckle. After all, he who laughs last laughs best. And the resounding echo of his laugher can still be heard. Especially on Easter morning.

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!

“They found no legal reason to execute him, but they asked Pilate to have him killed anyway. When they had done all that the prophecies said about him, they took him down from the cross and placed him in a tomb. But God raised him from the dead!” (Acts 13:28-30, NLT)

"Real Answers™" furnished courtesy of The Amy Foundation Internet Syndicate. To contact the author or The Amy Foundation, write or E-mail to: P. O. Box 16091, Lansing, MI 48901-6091; amyfoundtn@aol.com

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