The First April Fool

April 6, 2018

No one knows for sure where the tradition of April Fool’s Day comes from. It is said to be the most globally recognized, non-religious holiday of the calendar year. Whatever its origins people have been pranking one another on April 1st for centuries. This year April 1st, also happens to be Easter Sunday. Some might consider it an unfortunate calendar collision, that the most Holy Christian day of the year, must share space with April Fool’s Day. But for this Irishman, I think it is a match made in heaven.

Jesus was crucified on Friday. He was whipped, and had a crown of thorns painfully and mockingly thrusted upon his head. He was nailed, not tied to a Roman Cross, and suspended above ground, vaulted high on public display, as an object of ridicule and scorn. There He died a most painful death, offering himself up as a sacrifice for all humanity. Imagine the riotous celebration in Hell, as Jesus breathed his last breath. Satan and his minions must have roared with delight as Jesus hung upon the cross. Their sense of revenge finally satisfied as Jesus was abandoned by the Father, just as they had been ejected from Heaven millennia before. Satan’s triumph seemed complete as they took Jesus’ lifeless body from the cross, and laid it in a sealed tomb. But that was Friday…

On the morning of the third day of demonic celebration, Satan and his minions were smug in their victory. They had successfully killed the Son of God. His lifeless body was sealed away in a cave. Suddenly the earth shook, the tomb where Jesus’ body lay cracked open. Intense light emanated from within and there stood Jesus, alive and well; He had defeated death, conquered the grave, and rose from the dead. Satan had lost. His grip over humanity had been forever broken, the triumph of Jesus was just the beginning. From this day forward, whoever called upon the name of the Lord would also rise in victory. Jesus descended into the lower regions, there He snatched the keys of hell and the grave from Satan, and led to eternal freedom, all the Old Testament Saints, who had been held captive since death. Their Messiah was finally here. Satan shook with disbelief. The joke was on him. Satan had been fooled. Jesus had won.

On that first Easter Sunday, when our savior who had bled and died rose again in resurrection power, Satan became a cosmic joke, the laughing stock of the universe. Yes, on resurrection Sunday, Satan became the world’s first April Fool.

That’s why this Irishman thinks it is fitting that Easter Sunday, is also April Fool’s Day.