What, Then, Is Spring?

March is the month named after Mars, the Roman god of war. Winter is about over, the snow is melting, roads become passable again, and armies can “march.”

This past March one day was 71 degrees, dirty snow, windy, melt runoff, daffodils, sunshine and robins. But the next day it was 25 degrees, sleet and snow. Sigh…March is the month so like real life—one never knows what it will throw at you.

Ah, but at the end of this wintry gauntlet, when cold has lost its bluster, there is a spring. And one story has it that at the end of this cruel life there is a type of spring—the resurrection.

April, the month following March, likely comes from the Latin word aperire, meaning to open, an allusion to its being the season when death opens to life as spring is the opening of flowers.

Right in the heart of winter slush and spring flowers is Easter, the Christian celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Like a winter gale, Christ suffered all that mankind could throw at Him—hate, rejection, brutality, shame, death. But after man had done his worst, God did His best. He raised Jesus to newness of life.

There are no such miracles modern skeptics angrily cry. But what, then, is spring?

So, let’s hear it all again—the wonderful story of Easter…from Mark 16:1-7…

16:1 When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body. 2 Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb 3 and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?”

4 But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. 5 As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.

6 “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. 7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’”

The Reverend Stephen Crotts is pastor of Village Presbyterian Church in Charlotte Court House, VA. He is also the director of the Carolina Study Center, Inc., a campus ministry, located in Chapel Hill, NC. Pastor Crotts may be reached at carolinastudycenter@msn.com.