April Fool's!

Mary Kay writes:

I have been struck this Holy Week with the juxtaposition of the sacred and the secular calendars.  As you know, Palm Sunday fell on April 1 this year.  This has only happened nine times in the last three centuries.  Apparently it happened in 2007, the only other time in my lifetime as I look back, but I totally missed it then – probably because we had just moved to Ghana and everything else about Holy Week and Easter celebrations here was so new to me.  Plus, it doesn’t seem like Ghana makes as big a deal of April Fool’s Day as we used to in the US.  The next time it will happen will be in the year 2091.  Since I would be 131 at that point, I think it is probably safe to say that this is the last time in my life that I will see Palm Sunday and April Fool’s fall on the same day.

I read a couple of devotions, tweets, and the like this week that pointed out this juxtaposition.  Most pointed out that the same people who were praising Jesus, shouting “Hosanna”, which means “save us”, were the ones shouting for his crucifixion by the end of the week.  Some talked about the disciples “borrowing” a donkey – which the owner must have seen as a prank – though presumably the donkey was returned at the end of the day. 

I also looked into the history of April Fool’s Day to see when the tradition started.  The Persians (and now the Iranians) celebrate a day of pranks on the 13^th day of their New Year, which either falls on April 1 or April 2, according to Wikipedia. The earliest mention of a day of pranks associated specifically with April 1 was in Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales in The Nun’s Priest’s Tale, which is the tale of Chanticleer and the Fox.  Certainly Chanticleer outfoxing the fox could be considered a good April Fool’s prank!  But the Romans celebrated a festival called Hilaria on the 25^th of March, which is also thought to be a precursor to our present day tradition.

Given that Jerusalem was under Roman rule, and that the Passover (and therefore Easter) changes days as a lunar holiday, it is quite possible that the original Palm Sunday procession coincided with the Roman Hilaria.  This would be even more fitting in my mind.  To see Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, with the crowds going wild?  This event is easier to see as a Monty Python-esque satire of the great Roman military processions than as a real act of worship and praise.  Who would cheer for a guy on a donkey, unless you thought it was all a great farce?  Certainly Jesus did not represent the type of military hero that Israel would have liked to see come and kick out the Romans – that guy would have looked more like a combination of Sparticus, Ben Hur and Rambo!  Or at least Iron Man, with the disciples cast as the rest of the Avengers.

By Friday, the prank seemed obvious.  Jesus, who had triumphally entered Jerusalem the week before was now hanging on a cross, dying.  The joke felt like it was on all of us for believing, for hoping.  The disciples sure didn’t get it – they were the ones most discouraged at the death of their leader.  They were the ones who thought Palm Sunday was real, only to have their hopes dashed.  They heard Jesus say, “It is finished,” and thought all was lost.  They spent the weekend hiding in terror that they would be killed next as his associates.  Even Satan thought he had won that day, triumphing over God’s Son at last.

On Friday, a thief on a cross and one of the Roman centurions who helped to crucify Jesus caught a glimpse of the real story, but even they didn’t get the full picture.  But today, Sunday morning, we can look back and laugh!  We see joke and we get it.  We share in the “Gotcha”.  We can run to our friends shouting the Good News.  He is alive!  Jesus conquered the cross and death.  He conquers all the rulers of this world – whether Romans or Americans or someone else.  He conquers all the lesser gods and demons of the spiritual world – even that most powerful of demons, Satan.  On Easter, of all days, we proclaim that all is right with the world.  God’s creation is restored and God declares, “It is very good!”.

Alleluia! Christ is risen.  He is risen, indeed!  Alleluia!

“[Jesus] told them, “This is what is written:  The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness will be preched in His Name to all nations, beginning in Jerusalem.”  (Luke 24:46-47, NIV)

The artwork posted today is from www.jesusmafa.com, an organization dedicated to presenting the Gospel in an African context.

Water Is Life

Water is Life. We all have been thirsty, we all understand. Whether in the hot summers of Georgia, the hotter and more humid equatorial tropics of Houston or southern Ghana, or on the even hotter, dusty semi-arid savannahs of northern Ghana, “water is life” is not just a saying – it is reality. Here in Ghana, water is deeply ingrained in the local culture. Any time you visit anyone anywhere - city or village, office or home - Ghanaian culture and hospitality demands that you are offered water to drink. That is always the first order of business – before even introductions or stating your mission. If you are not offered water, by oversight or because you are visiting clueless expats, it would not at all be rude to ask for water. Once you have traveled around Ghana at all, even here in Accra, it is easy to understand why. This is a hot, dusty place, and you get thirsty so quickly. Dehydration easily turns into a headache or worse here. 

When we dedicated the borehole at Koduakrom last Friday, I had the opportunity to share a few thoughts with the assembled villagers. I reminded them of the role water plays in their culture of hospitality. You could see the heads nod in agreement. Then I told them the story of Jesus meeting the Samaritan woman at the well from John 4. While the Samaritan woman gave Jesus water to drink from the well, He gave her something much more valuable – Living Water! And despite the sin in her life, her religious traditions, her gender and her culture – all barriers that could have blocked her from receiving this gift from Jesus – she accepted it. 

The people of Koduakrom have been blessed with the gift of safe drinking water. The village will have plenty of potable water throughout the year. Their children will be less likely to get waterborne diseases. They will be able to share this water with visitors and weary travelers who come to their village. All of these are great, life changing benefits to the village. But how much more life changing will it be if they share the Living Water that Jesus offers with each cup of drinking water! 


In the US, we are blessed with abundant access to safe drinking water. And we are blessed with abundant access to Living Water as well through our churches, media, books, seminars, even the internet. But do we link the two together as Jesus did? Do we introduce Jesus when we offer a glass of water to a visitor who may not know Him? 

"Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?” Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:10-14, NIV)