GC Special Easter Message - The Production Number

By Robin Caldwell

GaGa, my grandmother Irene, would create these elaborate Easter displays that we affectionately called, “production numbers.” Each display, from year to year, contained the requisite candy treats, Easter eggs colored by me the night before and some special gift like a new cross pendant or a toy.

I’d receive one of these displays well into my adult years, and even when she stopped I’d beg her to make something, anything. The production number was a hard habit to break.

The most sobering aspect of Easter wasn’t the end to the production number but rather the discovery that on Easter day, when Jesus arose from the grave, little kids in Jerusalem didn’t dress up in their finest or do an Easter egg hunt and eat the heads off of chocolate bunnies. Some grandmother or GaGa during those times didn’t make a production number for her Sugie (me).

Easter wasn’t even called Easter back then. It was just another day.

The next day—on the first day after the Passover ceremonies—the leading priests and Pharisees went to see Pilate. They told him, "Sir, we remember what that deceiver once said while he was still alive: 'After three days I will be raised from the dead.' So we request that you seal the tomb until the third day. This will prevent his disciples from coming and stealing the body and then telling everyone that he came back to life! If that happens, we'll be worse off then we were at first.” Pilate replied, "Take guards and secure it the best you can.” So they sealed the tomb and posted the guards to protect it.– Matthew 27: 62-66 (NLT)

The only fanfare back then involved the discovery of an empty grave. The empty grave was the production number and the risen Savior was the treat. In fact, the only people excited about the spectacle were those privileged to be witnesses – the guards posted outside, Mary Magdalene, Salome and the other Mary (the mother of James) – and privileged to receive the news of Jesus’s resurrection.

In terms of production value, you can’t get any better than an earthquake provoked by an angel further causing the huge stone covering the tomb’s entrance to be rolled away. The timing was impeccable: all of this happened as the women approached the tomb and in a manner that awakened the guards who were posted outside to insure that no one tried to steal the body. Once the stone was rolled away, everyone discovered, at the same time, that Jesus was not in the tomb. The women trembled and listened to the angel who both soothed and instructed them while the guards who were scared to death fainted.

Hollywood couldn’t script a better scene.

Early on Sunday morning, as the new day was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went out to see the tomb. Suddenly there was a great earthquake, because an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and rolled aside the stone and sat on it. His face shone like lightning, and his clothing was as white as snow. The guards shook with fear when they saw him, and they fell into a dead faint. Then the angel spoke to the women. "Don't be afraid!” he said. "I know you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He isn't here! He has been raised from the dead, just as he said would happen. Come, see where his body was lying. And now go quickly and tell his disciples he has been raised from the dead, and he is going ahead of you to Galilee. You will see him there. Remember, I have told you.” – Matthew 28: 1-7 (NLT)

During Sunday morning children’s Easter programs, one of my favorite parts is when a little child yells, “He is risen. He is risen.” It is a warm and fuzzy moment, but it is the most poignant or should be to believers – true followers of Christ. The crucifixion, resurrection and ascension of Jesus are the core foundations of our faith in Him. Without those three miraculous, perplexing and momentous events we’d have nothing to celebrate on Easter Sunday. We’d certainly have no reason to eat jelly beans and the heads off of chocolate bunnies; would we?

I loved my grandmother madly and loved those production numbers on Easter morning. However, nothing she did could cap the heavenly production of Jesus’s death, resurrection and ascension to Heaven. Nothing.

With the expectation and fervor of a child, I implore you to be excited about the Easter holiday or holy day, the holiest of all Christian occasions. I beg you to forget, if you can and for a minute, about the candy, eggs and even the ham on the table and focus on the magnitude of the day and its significance. I beg you to celebrate the Risen Lord. Rejoice!