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Christ, our passover is sacrificed for us; therefore let us keep the feast.
1 Corinthians 5:7

             Easter is about turning the situation around.  In Christian faith, the reversal of fortune is the work of one individual.  Christianity places great stress on the individual:  not only is our salvation the fruit of one man’s sacrifice; salvation is only available on an individual basis.  As they say in the Salvation Army, the world is saved one soul at a time. 
            The infinite value of each individual is something which we Christians need to safeguard, for in popular culture the individual often counts for very little.  We hear a lot about the rights of various groups, and these groups are often very vocal in promoting their particular agendas. 
            But human rights are not vested in groups; they do not arise out of membership in some particular community.  They arise out of the worth and dignity of each individual human being.  Christian emphasis on the individual as the object of God’s redeeming love has nothing to do with individualism, the cult of personal self-interest; it has nothing to do with separating oneself from the common good.  For the common good is furthered by individual conscience and commitment, not by mass movements. 
            Doctor Samuel Johnson once said, “The people, sir, is a beast.”  Every day on television we see the suffering caused by nationalistic antagonisms: Serbs and Kosovars, Chinese and Tibetans, Israelis and Palestinians, Turks and Kurds.  This suffering is the demonic work of those in whom conscience and compassion have been stifled by rabid nationlism. 
            Sad to say, there is often a religious element involved.  Those who believe themselves to be God’s chosen people may treat those of other faiths in an inhuman fashion.  Jesus the Jew gives us an example when he praises the faith of the Canaanite woman (Matthew 15:28) and declares, “Many will come from the east and the west and sit at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 8:11)
            On this day of days, as we rejoice in Christ’s victory over death, may we see the face of Christ in every individual who comes our way, and respond with the love with which Christ loved us. 

March 23, 2008

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