On April 1, 1957 the British news show Panorama<\/em> broadcast a three-minute segment about a bumper spaghetti harvest in southern Switzerland. The success of the crop was attributed both to an unusually mild winter and to the \u201cvirtual disappearance of the spaghetti weevil.\u201d The audience heard Richard Dimbleby, the show\u2019s highly respected anchor, discussing the details of the spaghetti crop as they watched video footage of a Swiss family pulling pasta off spaghetti trees and placing it into baskets to dry. The segment concluded with the assurance that, \u201cFor those who love this dish, there\u2019s nothing like real, home-grown spaghetti.\u201d<\/p>\n

The story generated an enormous response. Hundreds of people phoned the BBC wanting to know how they could grow their own spaghetti tree. To this query the BBC diplomatically replied, \u201cPlace a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the spirit of April Fools\u2019 Day, you might want to try making caramel apples with a twist. Instead of using apples, dip onions <\/em>in the caramel, poke a stick in them, and serve them to family members who think they\u2019re biting into an apple.\u00a0 Good stuff.<\/p>\n

Oh yes, and today is also Easter Day. So it\u2019s a combo holiday, the first time this has happened since 1956.<\/p>\n

So who is the April fool in the Easter story? A number of candidates come to mind.<\/p>\n

Is the April fool Pontius Pilate<\/em>, the Roman procurator? He was the one who cowered in the face of certain religious potentates who said that failing to deal harshly with a treasonous villain like Jesus would not be viewed favorably by Rome. He\u2019s the one who washed his hands of the whole affair. He permitted the execution, and not only permitted it, but allowed it to happen in the name of the emperor.<\/p>\n

Then, it\u2019s Easter and Jesus is risen. Sorry, Pilate. April fool!<\/p>\n

Perhaps the April fools are the soldiers guarding the tomb.<\/em> You have to feel for these guys. They\u2019re simply cogs in the Roman military industrial complex. They\u2019ve got guard duty in a cemetery. They must\u2019ve been caught drinking grog and playing dice, or perhaps they inadvertently allowed a prisoner to escape their custody. So now, as humiliating punishment, they\u2019ve been sent to the tombs to guard dead people. They are ordinary, common men, following orders. Guarding a dead person. The teasing must have brutal in the pub last night.<\/p>\n

And now, it\u2019s Easter morning and Jesus is risen. April fool!<\/p>\n

Perhaps the disciples are the April fools.<\/em> There\u2019s no doubt that many of the apostles felt foolish as the crucifixion approached. They had given up their jobs for this Jesus. They had left their homes and families to follow this man on his journeys up and down Palestine. They had pinned their hopes and their futures on a man they believed would liberate them. And now he was being led away as a lamb to the slaughter. So the disciples went home. They abandoned him, betrayed him and wanted to forget him.<\/p>\n

And now it\u2019s Easter morning and Jesus is risen. April fool!<\/p>\n

Perhaps the greatest fools are us.<\/em> Certainly, much of the world believes we\u2019re crackers, people who need Jesus and religion as some sort of emotional crutch. We who love Jesus, who follow his teachings, who obey his word, are regarded by many as the fools. The April fools.<\/p>\n

But perhaps there\u2019s another sense in which we\u2019re the Easter fools. We\u2019re fools when we claim to believe, but behave as though we don\u2019t. We affirm a belief in the resurrection of Christ. We declare that \u201cHe is risen!\u201d But we live as though Jesus were still in the tomb, cold and decaying. We affirm our belief with our lips but do not confess Jesus as Lord with our lives.<\/p>\n

So why bother? We are indeed fools.<\/p>\n

And now, folks, it\u2019s Easter morning and Jesus is risen. April fool!<\/p>\n

But no, the biggest April fool is not Pontius Pilate, or the Roman soldiers, or the disciples, or you or any of us.<\/p>\n

The greatest April fool is Jesus Christ himself.<\/em> He is the Fool of Easter. He is the Trickster as it were. He is the one who called the devil\u2019s bluff in the greatest jest of all time.<\/p>\n

Even during his ministry, he acted in foolish ways, according to most contemporary observers. He eschewed a comfortable lifestyle. For friends he had tax collectors, hookers, lepers, fishermen, the poor and needy. Not a CEO among his inner circle. He shunted aside angel investors, and instead told them to give away their wealth and follow him. He knew that there is power in being a somebody, but there is truth in being a nobody.<\/p>\n

He opted for the truth because he knew that power emerges from truth. He chose weakness instead of strength, vulnerability instead of aggressiveness, truth instead of practicality, honesty instead of influence. He stuck his fingers in the eyes of religious authorities and often seemed to deliberately bait those who had the power to kill him.<\/p>\n

And then they did. But death could not hold him. The grave could not contain him.<\/p>\n

On Easter Day, \u201cGod made foolish the wisdom of the world\u201d (1 Corinthians 1:20). Jesus was \u201ca stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks,\u201d whereby God reconciled the world to himself (1 Corinthians 1:23; 2 Corinthians 5:18).<\/p>\n

So, does it matter that Christ has risen from the dead? It does if you have ever loved or been loved. It does if you value life and want to enjoy it forever.<\/p>\n

A researcher asked\u00a0some nine-year-old children what they thought of death and dying.<\/p>\n

Ryan spoke for many of us when he said, \u201cMaybe I\u2019ll die someday, but I hope I don\u2019t die on my birthday because it\u2019s no fun to celebrate your birthday if you\u2019re dead.\u201d I suppose he\u2019s right.<\/p>\n

Shannon commented, \u201cWhen you die, you don\u2019t have to do homework in heaven, unless your teacher is there, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

A girl named Kayla said, \u201cOnly the good people go to heaven. The other people go where it\u2019s hot all the time . . . like in Florida.\u201d<\/p>\n

It also matters whether Christ is risen from the grave if you want to make any sense out of living. Easter is important not only because of what it says about life beyond the grave, but because of what it says about life on this side of the grave.<\/p>\n

If Christ lives, then life has meaning. There is hope even in the most difficult of circumstances. Even at the very end of my rope, here is a knot I can hang on to. If Christ defeated death, if my life goes on forever, if the Gospel is true, I can live courageously, victoriously. I can overcome my fears by his grace and I can be all he intends for me to be. I don\u2019t have to fear the possibility of failure – not if Christ has been raised from the grave.<\/p>\n

Reaffirming our faith in the resurrection is why many of us are here today. We need to be reminded of the power of life over death, of hope over despair, of love over hate, and there is only one place on earth that can be found. It is by peering into the empty tomb of the man from Galilee.<\/p>\n

So go ahead: believe, follow, and imitate the one who pulled off the greatest jest in history. The tomb is empty.\u00a0 He lives. And so do we. No foolin\u2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On April 1, 1957 the British news show Panorama broadcast a three-minute segment about a bumper spaghetti harvest in southern Switzerland. The success of the crop was attributed both to an unusually mild winter and to the \u201cvirtual disappearance of the spaghetti weevil.\u201d The audience heard Richard Dimbleby, the show\u2019s highly respected anchor, discussing the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"pgc_sgb_lightbox_settings":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n