GUEST COLUMNIST
Follow Jesus' example and help the hungry

 

I'm not used to thinking about hunger on Easter. Most Easters I end up eating so much food that it makes me drowsy and I fall asleep on the couch with a belly full of baked ham or roasted lamb.

On Easter we are used to having food in such abundance that we use it for games and entertainment. We paint bright colored designs on the eggs we cook and scatter them in the yard for our children to find. We fill baskets with jelly beans and chocolate bunnies and hide them around the house so that our children can enjoy the excitement of discovering their hidden confections. Never for a moment do our children imagine that there might not be a stash of candy waiting to be discovered behind a closet or under a bed.

grew up believing that the Easter bunny brings food to every household and as an adult I guess I just assumed that something magical happens on Easter and everyone has enough to eat.

It is such a wonderful day of celebration that it is hard for me to imagine anyone being hungry. Every table I have ever seen on Easter Sunday has been piled high with food. The grocery stores are so filled with people shopping for the foods they need to prepare their Easter feasts that you can barely get your cart down the aisle.

On Easter morning our churches are overflowing with people dressed in their best outfits singing triumphal hymns of victory and promise. If God can roll away the stone and raise the dead on Easter morning, then surely no one needs to worry about being hungry on Easter.

But hunger is part of the Easter stories that we find in the Bible. In the closing chapter of John's gospel, the first thing we learn about the followers of Jesus after the crucifixion is that they were hungry. They had been fishing all night long without catching a thing. When Jesus appeared to them on the lakeshore, he didn't lead them in songs about his resurrection. And he didn't ask them whether or not they believed in life after death. He asked them if they were hungry. And then he fed them. Jesus built fire on the shore of the Sea of Tiberius and cooked his disciples some breakfast. And he also gave them instructions on where to let down their nets so that they could catch enough fish to feed everyone in their village.

I'm not used to thinking about hunger at Easter, but Jesus is. And today I invite you to celebrate Easter by following Jesus' example. Feed hungry people. Use the envelope included in today's Sunday edition of the Enquirer to make a significant contribution to the Food Bank of South Central Michigan. Help people less fortunate than you experience the abundant life that you enjoy today as you celebrate Easter.

The Rev. Thomas J. Ott is the senior pastor at First Congregational Church United Church of Christ in Battle Creek.