As a pastor, I’ve heard it for as long as I can remember: Easter is the Super Bowl of Sundays. It’s the day that we pull out all the stops, put out the extra chairs, and make sure we’ve got an overflow plan. It’s the day that we welcome new families and greet families that seem new because we haven’t seen them since, well, last Easter. But on a day that is marked by celebration, we don’t even hold that against them. Everyone is welcome and everyone – for the most part – is there.
It’s the one day a year that you can bet those pastors will be posting “those” posts to every social media outlet they can find. You know the ones: “Today at our church we had “X” number of people in attendance and we saw “X” number of people accept Jesus!”
Not that there’s anything wrong with excitement, of course, but as a pastor, I also know that the Sunday AFTER Easter is usually one of the lowest attended weeks and I’ve yet to see any pastor post about their numbers on those days. I wouldn’t expect them to, because that would kill the buzz that the Easter posts were supposed to generate.
I don’t mean to sound cynical. I don’t think that I am. It’s just that I’ve played the hype game, and what I’ve learned is that people need hope more than they need hype. I’ve also learned that hype isn’t bad, but that true hype is grounded in true hope. In fact, hype is Hope You’ve Personally Experienced.
[Tweet “True hype is grounded in true hope. In fact, hype is Hope You’ve Personally Experienced.”]Have you ever been to an event that was full of hype and yet empty of hope? In other words, it completely failed to deliver what the hype made you expect? It’s the worst feeling, and the Bible even acknowledges it.
Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.
Proverbs 13:12
I can remember being at sporting events for teams that were struggling at the time but had been successful in the past. The hype had the same format but it didn’t have the same effect. It was hollow because it’s just hard to hype a loser. You get your hopes up even though you know you’re going to have your hopes crushed. The truth is that no one does that for very long, and so when churches hype Easter with production, there is no sustaining hope when the production can’t achieve the next level week after week after week. Eventually, hearts that needed more hope than hype leave, and the verse we just read says that they don’t leave well.
[Tweet “True hope is grounded in something more than emotion and yet results in an explosion of emotion.”]What’s the answer? Hope. Real, live, “grounded in something more than emotion and yet resulting in an explosion of emotion” hope! Nothing delivers that more than the Resurrection story – and there was no hype when the story was written. Just an angel or two knocking out some guards and rolling away the stone. There was an explosion, too, so I guess you could say there were some pretty cool effects. But no one saw it. No one. The greatest moment in history happened without anyone there to see it. The emptying of the tomb happened out in an empty garden without a crowd.
[Tweet “The greatest moment in history happened without anyone there to see it, but what started in front of no one has had an effect on everyone.”]But what started in front of no one has had an effect on everyone. Think of it like this: the stone that was rolled away was like a stone dropped into the lake of time, and the ripple effects have been felt by everyone everywhere. Because He lives, we can live. Because He overcame, we can overcome. Because He won, we win. Now that’s something that we can hype because it’s grounded in real hope. Hope You’ve Personally Experienced.
It’s the hope that we need, and this year, God is using a virus to strip away everything else so that we can see past the hype that may have left us empty in order to see the hope that will fill us forever.
