“Anyone who lives puts his trust in Me will never die." ~ John 11:26
Ask any three people for a transformative
symbol and you can count on it at least one of them will mention the butterfly;
born of an insignificant caterpillar who will wrap herself in a silk cocoon (or
chrysalis) and develop into a delicate winged beauty.
Somehow, the miracle of the butterfly never loses its
fascination for me. Perhaps because the
butterfly is a living parable of the resurrection promise Christians celebrate on
Easter Sunday.
I’ve always idealized what happens in a
chrysalis, when the caterpillar gingerly cocoons herself away from the day’s sunlight. She’ll later emerge from her tiny tomb as a
fully-developed, spectacular butterfly soaring into the heavens, thus completing
a gentle metamorphosis from one thing into another.
To be able to become a butterfly, the caterpillar must completely
decompose down to its very essence, devoid of any shape or consciousness. Cells rupture.
Muscle dissolves. All that’s left
is an amino acid and protein soup. It
dies. There’s nothing left of it.
And from this liquid substance, a butterfly starts to
rebuild itself from scratch. Biologists
call what happens to the caterpillar “a violent, utterly disruptive,
cataclysmic change.” The caterpillar experiences
its own Good Friday.
The Bible reveals that on Good Friday, Jesus was lifted,
already bloodied and broken, onto a crossbeam of wood, where he was further scorned
and ridiculed as he slowly asphyxiated.
By the time Friday’s sun was setting, Jesus would’ve been scarcely
recognizable, even to his mother and few remaining friends. Jesus’ face was cruelly swollen, his body
contorted and bruised, with shoulders wrenched from their sockets.
Jesus didn’t just die.
He died horribly.
Just three days later, on Easter morning the disciples peered
into the open tomb and saw only the linens used to bind Jesus’ dead body -
nothing else. The corpse was gone, much
like an empty chrysalis deserted by a butterfly who escaped to soar freely. "He has risen as He promised," an
angel told the skeptical disciples.
For Christians around the world, Easter is a celebration of
Jesus’ resurrection. But Easter is also
about us. If we are to experience
Easter, if we are to share in Resurrection, we must be willing to relinquish
those things we cling to that threaten our spiritual well-being.
And when we do, we’ll emerge from Good Friday with the Son
of God into new life. The best of our
old lives - our passions, our virtues, our beauties, our loves - will still be
at the heart of us. We will be who we are but redeemed in the
light of God’s grace.
