Engaging Youth in the Easter Story
The Easter story very literally brings out the life, death, and afterlife questions of our faith, but is it the best moment to intellectually engage these questions?
Youth (think high school) are at an interesting age to engage with the big large elements of the Christian story. On the one hand, you don't need to tread as gently or as light heartedly as you do with younger children. Youth have big questions, and are processing things in complex and deep ways. On the other hand, they are still looking to adult mentors for guidance on the big matters of life and aren't usually ready for the spiritual deconstruction and reconstruction that often happens in young adulthood.
This is perhaps most potently experienced in the Easter story. There are so many emotional, theological, and experiential elements to how we keep, lament, and celebrate this story. Times of sacrifice, foreboding, mourning, and celebration. It can at times feel like emotional whiplash to the sensitive observer, yet this is how the story took place. On the dawn of their darkest moment, the followers of Jesus received their greatest joy and cause for celebration in the resurrection.
All of this sparks big questions, the necessity for death, the history of animal bloodshed, the rejection from those Jesus came to heal, issues of sin and salvation, the place of eternity in it all. The Easter story very literally brings out the life, death, and afterlife questions of our faith. In some sense it's a beautifully simple tale of what real love looks like. In another, it is endlessly complex and likely to stir up all manner of emotional and intellectual responses.
Often as parents, mentors, or pastors of young people the temptation in these moments is to go into full 'apologetics' mode. Movies and books such as 'The Case for Christ,' to prove the realness of the Jesus story. Or we go into 'theology' mode. Deep bible studies on sin and salvation and the symbolism of Messiah and the cross in the Old Testament. I want to be clear that neither of these responses are bad. I found them very helpful and reassuring in my own faith journey as a teenager, and these big building blocks are an important foundation to have in place when we face-down the Spiritual uncertainty that adulthood so often brings. What I would like to suggest though, is that perhaps Easter isn't the right moment for these responses.
The lectionary and liturgical calendars set us up with Lent, a time of reflection, of fasting, of sacrifice, of meditation on the greater things of life. That leads us into the Holy Week. We experience the dramatic high of the triumphant entry into Jerusalem to the Final Supper when Jesus predicts His betrayal. We feel the gut-wrenching anxiety of the garden to the oppressive and unjust systems of governance. We react with the disciples in the fear and heartbreak, longing and despair on Friday in Golgotha. And we wait in the blank darkness and unknowingness of Saturday. Finally reaching the incredible and beyond our wildest dreams celebration of resurrection and light on Sunday.
All of that is to say, perhaps the best gift we can give our youth in the Easter season is the journey of Easter itself. Not to suspend questions or cast aside all doubt, but to challenge them to experience the Easter story as it unfolds. To dedicate this season to lean in to the story, the emotions, the journey of it all. To follow it as the disciples did, with doubt and questions and awe and wonder all in hand together. And in so doing, to encourage our youth to connect to a deeper Spiritual side of themselves than they ever have before.
To that end, there are a couple of resources I would love to point you towards as you consider engaging your youth or young person in the Easter story this year. In addition to these resources, I would encourage your young people to engage deeply with the Easter rhythm of your church or faith community. Debrief afterwards about what they experienced, felt, thought, saw, heard, tasted, touched.
...the best gift we can give our youth in the Easter season is the journey of Easter itself. Not to suspend questions or cast aside all doubt, but to challenge them to experience the Easter story as it unfolds. To dedicate this season to lean in to the story, the emotions, the journey of it all. To follow it as the disciples did, with doubt and questions and awe and wonder all in hand together.
Forty Days and Forty Prompts
"Forty Days and Forty Prompts" is a resource for youth from the VICTAS Synod. It has a question for reflection and/or a bible passage for reflection for every day of Lent. For a young person or youth group looking for an intentional journey, or for a youth group leader looking for something to put on social stories in the lead up to Easter, this is a really excellent resource. It has the potential to spark deep thinking and real conversations with your young people.
Practice Lament Playlist and Journal
One of the most meaningful Easters I experienced as a youth pastor with a group of young people was a year we chose to practice lament. Our young people feel deeply a world that is torn by war, divided by race and politics, and on the brink of climate collapse. In this world, lament is an important spiritual discipline. As part of that experience I made a playlist and accompanying journal for young people to make their way through. A disclaimer on the playlist - it features a range of Christian artists with a range of conservative to progressive theologies and traditional/contemporary styles. Some you may be uncomfortable with. Some you may be trying to avoid altogether. Yet in that tension lies the Christian story and the invitation to lament - a multitude of messy and complicated people together attempting to connect with the divine. And that story is ultimately one of hope. Feel the subtle and sometimes not so subtle shifts of lament, doubt, despair, hope, joy, and triumph.