“Then he said to them, ‘Go your way, eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions of them to those for whom nothing is prepared, for this day is holy to our LORD, and do not be grieved, for the joy of the LORD is your strength’” (Neh 8:10 NRSVue).

How many of us feel deep joy when we think of God? of the Easter story? I’m not talking about the value society places on happiness. Rather than being dependent on external circumstances or society’s restless norms, God’s Fruit of Joy rests in our joy-filled relationship with the Holy Spirit. It provides a deep, sustaining, and everlasting joy that is marked by hope, assurance, love, and being grounded during times of stress, pain, grief, and loss. Aren’t these life-sustaining gifts what the resurrected Christ symbolizes and why we celebrate Easter?

This was brought home to me when one of my seminary professors explained the difference between Orthodox crucifixes (cross with Jesus on them) and Protestant crosses (empty cross). Both profess Christian faith, but crucifixes place their theological emphasis on the trauma of Jesus’s death and suffering. The (empty) cross symbolizes our theology of hope and joy in the Resurrection. There is a world of difference. While we honor the horror of the three days of Jesus’s suffering, we see them as the necessary prelude to the empty cross and empty tomb of Easter morning. As the people of Easter, we wear our crosses and proclaim, “Christ has risen. Christ has risen indeed!”

Over the next weeks as we wind our way through Lent and Holy Week towards Easter morning, let’s hold the Spirit-sustaining Fruit of Joy in our hearts and thank God for the risen Christ.

In Joy,

Karen Kaigler-Walker. President
United Methodist Women FUMCFW