Easter Grinning

Occasionally in my reading, I come across something that trips all the wires and pushes all my buttons. Rings all my bells.

An inner alert goes off to notify me a special message from the Holy Spirit is now arriving in control central.

That happened this morning.

The novel I’m reading is “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society,” by Mary Ann Shaffer and her niece, Annie Barrows. The “Guernsey” in the title refers to the Channel Island off the coast of France. For a thousand years–ever since William the Conqueror brought them with him from France–these islands have been the possession of Britain. During the entire six years of the Second World War, they were occupied by the Nazis, the only area of Britain so “honored.”

The novel is a series of letters to and from Juliet Ashton, a writer, in the early months of 1946, just after the end of the war. She is considering making the Nazi occupation of the islands the subject of her next book.

At one point, she writes to her editor this paragraph:

“For example–yesterday I was reading an article on the liberation. A reporter asked a Guernsey Islander, ‘What was the most difficult experience you had during the Germans’ rule?’ He made fun of the man’s answer, but it made perfect sense to me. The Islander told him, ‘You know they took away all of our wireless sets? If you were caught having a hidden radio, you’d get sent off to prison on the continent. Well, those of us who had secret radios, we heard about the Allies landing in Normandy. Trouble was, we weren’t supposed to know it had happened! Hardest thing I ever did was walk around St. Peter Port on June 7, not grinning, not smiling, not doing anything to let those Germans know that I KNEW their end was coming. If they’d caught on, someone would be in for it–so we had to pretend. It was very hard to pretend not to know D-Day had happened.”

Any minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ–any disciple at all, for that matter–who reads that immediately sees the parallel.


Ever since that first Easter when the Lord Jesus came out of the tomb and showed Himself alive, we have been wearing the Easter grin.

We have the victory. Death is defeated. Our sins are forgiven. The enemy is still around, but we know his days are numbered. Eternal life is a done deal. Jesus Christ is Lord!

The end is not yet, but it’s coming. And we are giddy with anticipation.

The trouble is, some of Christ’s followers have achieved what the Guernsey Islanders found almost impossible: learned to pretend it never happened.

Look at our faces, listen to our conversation, watch our grief at funerals, study our preoccupation with this world and our grasping at the fleeting possessions earth offers.

You’d think we’d never heard of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Watch our fighting over inconsequential matters, observe the little kingdoms some who call themselves preachers are setting up in their own honor, check out our fears over the economy or a government program or the election of a candidate.

What happened to our victory?

Listen to the exultation of the Apostle Paul as he writes to a congregation of believers who had lost their Easter grin and settled in to arguing and bickering….

“…death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?…. Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

He continues, “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the Lord, forasmuch as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” (I Corinthians 15:54-58)

For a glimpse of the purity of that first Easter joy, check out this:

“While they were telling these things, He Himself stood in their midst. But they were startled and frightened and thought they were seeing a spirit.

“And He said to them, ‘Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me and see–for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.’

“And while they still could not believe it for joy and were marveling, He said to them, ‘Anyone got anything to eat?'” (Luke 24:36-41)

Later, we read how Jesus ascends into Heaven. That must have been stunning to the believers, but–good news here–they still kept their joy.

“And they returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple, praising God.” (Luke 24:52-53)

Ever since that event, every Sunday has been celebrated in the Lord’s churches as the Lord’s day, a mini-Easter, if you will.

And the Lord’s people–those who believe His promises and take Him at His word–have walked around with these goofy grins on our faces.

That may be what Acts 4:13 is indicating. “Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John, and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were marveling and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus.”

The grins gave them away.

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