The Rose of Sharon at Easter

It is difficult to imagine writing an Easter blog with anything left to say from all the other Easter blogs. So, as with every blog and every thought ideally, I look to inspiration and guidance from God the Holy Spirit to give a few words on the penultimate “holiday” for the Christian Church. As Visible Music College is aligned, rooted, and committed to the doctrine and practice of the historic, orthodox (small “o”), Christian Church (capital “c” and global beyond denominations), we take Good Friday off work and class and spend a lot of hours in musical preparation and expression of Jesus’ final days of human existence as his life was given up (not taken) almost 2,000 years ago.

I was impressed to express this Easter through the image of the Rose of Sharon from Song of Solomon and Petra the rock band.

Although the imagery and origin is controverted and weakly linked to Christ, I love it even more. In the Christian faith, everything is linked to Jesus as the son of God and the trinitarian equal with God and the person/God through whom all is created (see our Visible verse Colossians 1:16). So every flower and beautiful and lowly thing is created by and through Jesus and thereby related to him. The “rose” image we have in our minds establishes a scent and sight of stately beauty and that Christ would be sacrificed at Easter paints a picture of the Rose of Sharon pressed and bloodied and killed for sin - powerful. But what if it (the rose of Sharon) is just the delicate desert crocus, simple and lowly? Even more indicative of the relatable Jesus/savior/God/man/lamb that is killed and again risen at Easter?

It is a nice place to start at Easter to just remember, imagine, allow the fragrance of new imagery, and read the account of Jesus in Matthew 28. Happy, rosy, Easter.

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